Without Roe v. Wade, people seeking an abortion in states where the procedure will be banned will face long treks, often by multiple means of transportation, in order to get care.
NBC News analyzed the distance to the nearest open abortion clinic from major cities in 21 states that either have pre-existing or pending state-level abortion bans that will go into effect following the Supreme Court’s ruling Friday to overturn Roe. People in those cities will have to drive four hours on average to receive care in bordering states where abortion remains legal.
For someone living in Salt Lake City, it will require driving six hours and traveling roughly 335 miles to the nearest open clinic in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Without a car, that trek stretches to more than 19 hours via multiple buses.
From Boise, Idaho, the drive is more than 250 miles to the Walla Walla Health Center in Washington. A patient in Idaho Falls won’t even be able to get to the nearest clinic — approximately 290 miles away in Helena, Montana — without a car.
Someone without a car in Columbia, Missouri, will have a hard time traveling to the nearest clinic, more than 150 miles away in Overland Park, Kansas. A person living in Columbia will need to take three buses to travel to Granite City in Illinois.
As long as these journeys are, people in Southern states have even greater distances to travel for safe care. Idaho, Missouri and Utah are all bordered by states where abortion is protected either by state law or by court order. Someone in Corpus Christi, Texas, will need to drive nine hours or travel more than a day by transit to get to Santa Teresa, New Mexico. And the closest available clinic to New Orleans is three states over in Tallahassee, Florida.
More than two dozen states could ban or restrict abortions now that the Supreme Court has overturned the landmark 1973 ruling, including 13 states with "trigger laws" that automatically spring into effect now that the court has ruled.
