Dobbs’ impact on Indiana in 2022
The roiling abortion landscape of 2022 made the release of Indiana’s annual Terminated Pregnancy Report more notable than normal this year. Ironically, it also coincided with the announcement by the Indiana Supreme Court that it was upholding the state’s abortion ban that was in force for one week last year.
In addition to showing if swings in monthly totals tracked with the year’s very public legal changes in state and federal abortion law, I wanted to present the monthly data in the context of past years’ data to convey the ordinary month-to-month and year-to-year variability. I also wanted to show any significant changes to the nonresident abortion totals. As some nearby states implemented their own strict abortion bans, the injunction on Indiana’s ban made the state a likely refuge for people seeking care.
The two graphs I initially created conveyed the magnitude of the changes both in total abortions and the jump in nonresident abortions. After spending more time with the data I created a similar version that displays nonresident and resident abortions as distinct lines. I think it presents a more nuanced understanding of the 13% increase in total abortions.
