Despite its small size and population, in the two years since the fall of Roe v Wade, Maryland has become one of the top states for providing reproductive health care – providing abortion services on par with much larger jurisdictions and taking in large numbers of people traveling to get care.

Recent numbers from the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit focused on reproductive health, found that in 2023, Maryland performed more than 38,000 abortions, about 8,100 of which came from out-of-state.

By comparison, Michigan, a state with about four million more people and no restrictions on abortion, performed about 37,500 abortions in 2023.

Only six states performed more abortions than Maryland last year, and all of them had significantly more people residing there.

Maryland saw a 29% increase in abortions in 2023 compared to 2019, a vast majority came from non-state residents.

“Maryland has seen a pretty sizable increase in the number of people traveling from out of state for care,” said Isaac Maddow-Zimet, a data scientist with the Guttmacher Institute. “There's also been an increase in the number of Maryland residents who are having abortions, which speaks to the ways in which a lot of times the kinds of policies that people pass to increase access for folks traveling from out of state can also sometimes help residents of a state as well.”

Since the Supreme Court struck down Roe V Wade, 14 states have banned abortions with limited exceptions causing people to seek care in other jurisdictions.

Maryland has tried to make itself a safe haven for people seeking reproductive care. The state invested fifteen point six million dollars at the beginning of 2024 into reproductive clinical training and Medicaid reimbursement for abortion care.

The state enacted shield laws after the Supreme Court ruling to protect providers and patients coming from out of state. It also stocked up on the abortion drug mifepristone when a federal court case challenged its availability.

“We're working really hard to increase access, said Tica Torres, the patient access program manager at Planned Parenthood Maryland. “The biggest barrier we're having is housing folks when they're here, where they stay to wait for their appointment time, so getting them vouchers for hotels and things of that nature. Also local travel finding like rides from the airport to the clinic.”

Morgan Nuzzo is the co-founder and executive director of Partners in Abortion Care, a clinic in Maryland that specializes in abortions between twenty and thirty four weeks. Nuzzo says the clinics staff has seen people coming from all over for care.

“Last year with our data, we saw people traveling from over 40 states and three countries,” Nuzzo said.

Nuzzo said part of the reason people travel to Maryland is because it is one of the nine states that does not have restrictions on when abortions can be performed in a pregnancy.

Later abortions extremely rare; only one percent of abortions are performed after 21 weeks, according to KFF.

However, some states are setting restrictions earlier in pregnancies since the fall of Roe. Florida, Georgia, Iowa and South Carolina all ban abortions after six weeks.

Charlie Hughes, an intake coordinator at the Texas Equal Access Fund, which helps people find services, says many people are having to travel farther and wait longer for abortions because appointment schedules are filled in nearby states or gestational bans put a time crunch on finding care.

“We find a lot of people going to Maryland primarily because they're further along and majority reasons is the travel complication,” Hughs said. “They've had to postpone getting an appointment, or they haven't been able to get an appointment at a closer state, so they've had to travel further to Maryland.”

Nuzzo says Maryland’s access to three airports and 26 clinics within the nation’s ninth smallest state helps make it an easier place for people to go for care.

She also says that the area has a deep network of abortion funds to help people in need of procedures.

“Those abortion funds are available for folks traveling to this area for care, and when you have a robust abortion fund in the area, makes it very it makes it easier for folks to access care,” Nuzzo said.

Marylanders will have an opportunity to further solidify reproductive policies when they vote on a state constitutional amendment to enshrine abortion rights in November.