JUNE 25, 2026
Four years after Dobbs, abortion numbers have risen and policy fights continue across states and courts
The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, returning abortion regulation to individual states. In the four years since, more than a dozen states have enacted bans or significant restrictions. Despite those bans, the national number of abortions has increased each year since the ruling, according to NPR's reporting.
Four years after Dobbs, the abortion landscape in the United States looks different than many observers anticipated. While states with bans saw restrictions take effect within hours of the ruling, national abortion totals have risen annually rather than fallen, driven in part by expanded access in states that support abortion rights and by the growth of telemedicine and mail-order medication abortion, NPR reported.
Shield laws have emerged as a central mechanism in that expansion. States that support abortion access have enacted legal protections allowing clinicians to prescribe medication abortion via telemedicine to patients in states with bans, without those patients traveling. Abortion pills can then be mailed or picked up at pharmacies. NPR reported that the number of abortions in ban states has itself increased as telemedicine abortion has grown.
Politically, the issue has created complications for national Republicans. NPR reported that President Trump's administration has been notably quiet on abortion heading into a midterm year, given that his 2024 coalition included independent voters who support abortion rights. At the same time, anti-abortion advocates have pushed for stronger federal action, including revival of the 19th-century Comstock Act, which prohibits mailing materials related to abortion. Justice Clarence Thomas, in a recent dissent on an abortion pill case, described drug companies distributing FDA-approved abortion medication as engaged in a "criminal enterprise" under that law.