CNN
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\n For 2\u00bd hours in <\/strong>February 2024, Gracie Ladd and her husband sat in heavy silence as they drove from their home in southern Wisconsin to Chicago. Their spirits were as cold and gray as the Midwestern winter passing by the car windows; Ladd was 20 weeks pregnant and had recently learned that a severe fetal condition made the developing baby \u201cincompatible with life.\u201d Staying pregnant could put her own health at risk, too.\n <\/p>\n \n But abortion wasn\u2019t an option in Wisconsin, where a 175-year-old state law had effectively banned the procedure at the time. That law has since been overturned, but Ladd, her family and her doctors were stuck in a legal gray area that raised fear and worry. And instead of being surrounded by familiar comforts at one of the most distressing points of her life, Ladd had to take time off from work, coordinate child care for her 2-year-old son and travel more than 100 miles from home to a health care provider she had never met.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIn the moment when it was all happening \u2026 I was more focused on just getting through the grief of that time. But as the months went on and I was sitting with what happened able to process it, I just got really mad,\u201d Ladd said. \u201cHow asinine is it that my health care providers can say, \u2018Yes, this is what you need, this is the best option for you, but we can\u2019t do it. You have to go here because our hospital is uncomfortable due to legal reasons to provide this procedure\u2019?\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Instead, Ladd spent an hours-long ride home lying uncomfortably the back seat of the car, nauseated and in pain \u2013 a trip that tens of thousands of others also made last year, often for even an even longer time, and sometimes alone.\n <\/p>\n \n More than 1 in 7 people who had an abortion in the United States last year crossed state lines to do so, according to new estimates from the Guttmacher Institute<\/a>, a research and policy organization focused on sexual and reproductive health that supports abortion rights. The patterns highlight the lasting impact of the US Supreme Court\u2019s Dobbs decision, which revoked the federal right to an abortion and created a fractured landscape of care \u2013 with ongoing policy changes that continue to affect tens of thousands.\n <\/p>\n \n About 155,000 people traveled out of state for an abortion in 2024, according to the new Guttmacher estimates \u2014 more than twice as many as in 2019.\n <\/p>\n \n Nearly half of those who traveled for an abortion last year came from a dozen states that have enacted total bans<\/a>, the Guttmacher data shows, including more than 28,000 Texas residents who left the state for an abortion last year \u2013 more than any other state.\n <\/p>\n \n Most often, those Texas residents traveled to neighboring New Mexico, where abortion is legal. Kansas and Colorado also welcomed thousands of Texas residents for abortions last year.\n <\/p>\n \n For some Texas residents, getting to a neighboring state requires a full day of travel. But in some parts of the country \u2013 particularly in the Southeast \u2013 options for abortion care require people to travel through multiple states.\n <\/p>\n \n In the first year and a half after the Dobbs decision, Florida had become a key access point for abortion care. In 2023, more than 9,000 people traveled from other states to get an abortion in Florida, according to Guttmacher data. About 1 in 12 abortions nationwide and 1 in 3 abortions in the South were performed in Florida at that time.\n <\/p>\n