Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt on Wednesday signed into law the nation's strictest abortion ban, making the state the first in the nation to effectively end availability of the procedure.
Elsewhere, the pandemic may have limited access to contraception, some experts said, or discouraged women from undertaking all the health care visits involved in a pregnancy. Illinois, for example, began allowing state Medicaid funds to pay for abortions starting in January 2018. The state saw abortions increase 25% between 2017 and 2020.
"If states are paying for abortions I hope they are also looking at how to support childbirth, so a woman doesn't think abortion is the best or only option," said Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee, which opposes abortion.