A new study conducted by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) has found that as many as 27 cities in the U.S. can be classified as "abortion deserts" because there are no clinics for women who want to terminate their pregnancy.
A reproductive health research group at UCSF has noted that there are about 27 U.S. cities where women have to travel at least 100 miles to obtain an abortion.
The researchers noted that there are 780 abortion clinics in the U.S., but the facilities are not evenly spread across the country. The highest number of abortion deserts can be found in the Midwest, and the lowest can be found in the Northeast, according to the study authors.
Only 92 abortion clinics are spread over 10 states in the Midwest, while 233 are located across nine states in the Northeast.
Alice Cartwright, the lead author of the study, explained that the research was aimed at examining how Americans navigate the "intersection of digital health and reproductive health."
Texas reportedly had the highest number of abortion deserts, having as many as 10 cities without abortion facilities.
"It really demonstrated to us that there are huge swaths of the country where people have to travel so far that they may just decide that the barriers of getting to an abortion clinic are [high] — they can't overcome them," Cartwright, who serves as the project director at Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH), told Bustle.
"So, they may choose to carry the pregnancy to term and parent that pregnancy when they may have preferred to have an abortion," she added.
The study, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research on Monday, further noted that six states - North Dakota, South Dakota, Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Mississippi - each had only one abortion facility.
In Rapid City, South Dakota, women reportedly have to travel 318 miles if they want to have an abortion. Other cities that were identified as abortion deserts include Columbia, Missouri; Green Bay, Wisconsin; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Corpus Christi, Texas; Lake Charles, Louisiana; and Fort Wayne, Indiana, according to Life News.
Cartwright noted that some abortion clinics have closed in the past seven years due to increasing restrictions passed by lawmakers.
A research published by the Guttmacher Institute in January has indicated that 400 state laws restricting abortion services have been passed between 2011 and 2017.
In 2018, as many as 15 abortion restrictions have been approved by state legislatures as of May 1, according to the Institute.
