One Year Post-Roe, PPNNE Details Impact of Supreme Court Decision to Dismantle Abortion Rights

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  

PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF NORTHERN NEW ENGLAND 

CONCORD, NH – Saturday, June 24, 2023 marks the one-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Twenty states now have abortion bans in effect and 1 in 3 women and more people who may need an abortion have lost that right in their state.

Planned Parenthood of Northern New England (PPNNE) continues to navigate this new landscape and continues to provide abortion – and the full range of reproductive health services – to patients across Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.  

Since July 1, 2022, PPNNE has provided abortion care to more than 3,000 patients from every corner of the country. Since Roe fell, PPNNE has seen a 12.5% increase in out-of-state abortion patients seeking abortion at our health centers. Sometimes patients come from states where they cannot legally obtain an abortion, and other times it’s because the wait time in their home state has increased as more people are traveling for care. The top ten states that patients hailed from were (in order): Massachusetts, New York, Texas, Florida, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Rhode Island, Arkansas, and California.

Since Roe was overturned, PPNNE also marked one year of offering telehealth visits for medication abortion. To date, 350 patients have utilized this service. We also launched medication abortion at our St. Johnsbury, Vermont health center in a region that has been described as a health care desert. Further, PPNNE has instituted changes to our surgical abortion program to continue to center the patient experience and reduce the duration of a visit.

Statement from Andrea Pelletier, MD, MPH, Medical Director, Planned Parenthood of Northern New England: 

“A year after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, we continue to see the fallout of this devastating and cruel decision which has left patients desperate, confused, and fearful for their health and their futures.  

In this national abortion crisis, Planned Parenthood of Northern New England has scaled up our operations to deliver care and increase access to abortion. We believe everyone deserves access to this essential health care, free of barriers. We are part of a movement that is strong and built to last. Planned Parenthood will do everything we can to provide patients with the sexual and reproductive care and resources they need – no matter what. We will never back down.” 

Health center anecdotes from the past year: 

• June 24, 2022 marked the largest one-day spike of organic traffic to our website (ppnne.org) that we’ve ever experienced. We saw increases of 450-650% in sessions, pageviews, and new users compared to the daily average for the first 23 days of June. 
• A mom in her forties* traveled from a banned state in the Midwest to a PPNNE health center for care. She shared that although many states where abortion remains legal were closer to her, she came to us for care because our region felt safer. 
• A junior* in high school shared with us that she is re-evaluating her college choices. She no longer wants to attend college in a state where abortion is illegal. 
• An upset patient* called to ask if they could be prosecuted for a past abortion they had. The patient is living in our region but had an abortion in a state where abortion is now illegal. 
• PPNNE saw a patient* from Texas who has insurance but they required a referral from their primary care physician. The patient was afraid to tell their doctor due to the abortion ban in Texas and was afraid they’d be turned in to the authorities. We provided this patient with compassionate and non-judgmental care, and the Laura Fund covered the full cost of the appointment. 

*In order to best protect our patients’ privacy, all patient data shared is reflective of PPNNE’s three-state presence in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont 

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Planned Parenthood of Northern New England (PPNNE) is the largest provider of reproductive and sexual health care across the state of New Hampshire. We serve New Hampshire residents through 5 health centers in Derry, Exeter, Keene, Manchester and White River Junction, VT. Last year we saw more than 10,000 patients at these sites. PPNNE was named a 2021 and 2022 Guardian of Excellence Award^® winner by Press Ganey, the national leader in health care consumer and workforce engagement. Press Ganey recognizes PPNNE as a top-performing health care organization, achieving the 95^th percentile or above for performance in patient experience, out of more than 20,000 medical practices.