Density of Abortion Facilities in the Four Largest US Cities

February 29, 2016

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The number of facilities in Texas has fallen from 41 in April 2013 to 18 currently. If the US Supreme Court allows the decision of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals regarding HB2 to go into effect, there will only be 9 or 10 facilities for the entire state. New York State, which has a population about 25% smaller than Texas, had 94 clinics in 2011.1

Prior to HB2, the density of abortion facilities in Houston was similar to New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago. Currently, the density is approximately 25% lower in Houston compared to these cities. If the ASC requirement goes into effect in Texas, there will only be two facilities providing abortion care in this city of over 2.2 million people. The ratio of facilities to population in Houston would be about one-quarter that of the other three cities. These findings raise concerns that two facilities would be unable to meet the demand for abortion services in the Houston metropolitan area, let alone for the larger surrounding area that has no other providers.

Sources of data:
* New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Bureau of Vital Statistics (2013)
† ACCESS Women’s Health Justice (2016)
‡ American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois (2016)
§ Texas Policy Evaluation Project2,3
** Population estimates for 2014 came from the US Census.4

References

1 Jones RK, Jerman J. Abortion incidence and service availability in the United States, 2011. Perspect Sex Reprod Health 2014;46(1):3-14.
2 Grossman D, Baum S, Fuentes L, White K, Hopkins K, Stevenson A, Potter JE. Change in abortion services after implementation of a restrictive law in Texas. Contraception 2014;90(5):496-501.
3 Fuentes L, Lebenkoff S, White K, Gerdts C, Hopkins K, Potter JE, Grossman D. Women’s experiences seeking abortion care shortly after the closure of clinics due to a restrictive law in Texas. Contraception 2016. pii:
S0010-7824(15)00708-8. doi: 10.1016/j.contraception.2015.12.017. [Epub ahead of print].
4 2014 population estimate, US Census, available at http://factfinder.census.gov.

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