On October 1, 2025, two Midwestern states found themselves at the heart of the country’s ongoing struggle over abortion rights—Ohio, where new data revealed a surprising steadiness in abortion numbers following a landmark constitutional amendment, and Wisconsin, where access to abortion entered a new crisis after Planned Parenthood paused its abortion services due to federal Medicaid cuts.
According to the Ohio Department of Health, 21,829 abortions were performed in Ohio in 2024, translating to 8.4 abortions per 1,000 female residents. This figure, released in the department’s annual report, marked a less than 1% decline from the previous year, a statistic that ran counter to some expectations that Ohio’s 2023 constitutional amendment—enshrining abortion and reproductive rights—would lead to a significant rise in procedures.
"I am glad that those people could come to Ohio for the care they needed, but they should have been able to get the care much closer to home. No one should be forced to cross state lines for health care," said Kellie Copeland, executive director of Abortion Forward, in comments reported by The Cincinnati Enquirer. Her words underscored a notable trend: while the total number of abortions stayed nearly flat, the number of out-of-state patients seeking abortion in Ohio climbed by 13% between 2023 and 2024. This increase highlights the ripple effects of abortion restrictions in neighboring states after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Before Ohio’s constitutional amendment, state law banned most abortions, with criminal charges possible for doctors who performed the procedure after embryonic cardiac activity was detected. That law has since been ruled unconstitutional, and another judge blocked a requirement that patients wait at least 24 hours before having an abortion. For a portion of 2022—specifically, 82 days—Ohioans were forced to travel out of state for care. "Thankfully, those days are behind us, and abortion is protected in the Ohio Constitution. But there is still work to be done in Ohio to ensure that everyone who needs an abortion has the access they need," Copeland emphasized.
Yet, the legal landscape remains anything but settled. In 2025, Republican lawmakers in Ohio introduced a bill to ban all abortions and charge patients who have them with murder—a move that would directly violate the new constitutional amendment. Other proposed measures would prevent Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid funds, reinstate the 24-hour waiting period, and even require students as young as third grade to watch a video on fetal development.
"Taxpayer dollars should not be used to support the practice of abortion in any way, and even more so on people not from the Buckeye State," argued Carrie Snyder, executive director of Ohio Right to Life, as reported by The Cincinnati Enquirer. Snyder called the slight decline in abortions "encouraging, given that Ohio has some of the most liberal abortion laws in the country and we have radical judges pushing this agenda." Medicaid does not pay for abortions in Ohio, but the debate over funding and access remains heated.
Copeland, for her part, accused state and federal politicians of "leaving tens of thousands of Ohioans without access to the healthcare services they need by introducing new unconstitutional restrictions on abortion access, cutting Medicaid funding, and banning essential providers like Planned Parenthood from the Medicaid program."
The Ohio Department of Health report also shed light on who obtained abortions in the state in 2024. The majority—64.6%—were performed at less than nine weeks gestation. Only 146 abortions, or 0.7% of the total, occurred at 21 weeks or later. Most patients (88.3%) were in their 20s or 30s, 83.4% had never married, and 62.3% had at least one child. When race was reported, 48.9% of patients were Black, 42.4% white, 3.3% Asian Pacific Islander, and 5.1% reported more than one race. About 0.4% of abortions—97 in total—were performed because of a medical necessity or emergency, with conditions including premature rupture of membranes, cardiac disease, and preeclampsia.
Meanwhile, just north in Wisconsin, abortion access entered a new phase of uncertainty. On the same day Ohio released its report, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin announced it would pause its abortion services. The reason? Medicaid cuts stemming from a recently enacted federal tax and spending bill, signed under President Trump, that barred clinics providing abortions from accepting Medicaid for any of their other services—including STI testing and birth control—for a full year.
In response, Democratic lawmakers introduced the Abortion Accessibility Act at the state capitol. State Senator Kelda Roys and Representative Lisa Subeck described the bill as a direct effort to remove "politically motivated restrictions" on abortion in Wisconsin. The act would repeal the state-mandated 24-hour delay before abortion, lift abortion medication and telehealth restrictions, and remove the provider ban that currently limits abortion provision to physicians only.
"We certainly can do everything we can in Wisconsin to make sure that the existing two independent clinics that provide abortion services are able to see as many patients as they possibly can," Sen. Roys said, according to WMTV. "And try to absorb some of the loss of service availability of Planned Parenthood and open the door to make sure that patients in Wisconsin don’t suffer access restrictions, that patients in other states don’t have to suffer."
Currently, only two independent abortion clinics are operating in Wisconsin, both located in Milwaukee. With Planned Parenthood’s pause, these clinics are now the only in-state option for those seeking abortion services. The pause also means that Planned Parenthood clinics cannot accept Medicaid for other essential health services for a year, though they remain open for non-abortion care.
Representative Subeck highlighted the severity of the situation: "In our state, we have a number of laws on the books that make it really challenging, if not impossible, for providers to provide abortion care. This is why Planned Parenthood, pausing their abortion services, so drastically limits abortion access in Wisconsin that it is at crisis proportions."
Public Health Madison and Dane County have stepped in, with registered nurses prepared to help people find abortion services, but the strain on the system is palpable. The state’s two remaining clinics are bracing for increased demand, while patients face longer travel times and more uncertainty than ever before.
The contrasting developments in Ohio and Wisconsin reveal just how much the landscape of abortion access in America can shift within a single year—and how much those shifts depend on the interplay between state law, federal policy, and the courts. While Ohio’s constitutional amendment has so far stabilized access, ongoing legislative battles threaten to upend that equilibrium. In Wisconsin, the intersection of federal funding decisions and state laws has pushed abortion access to what lawmakers are calling a "crisis."
As both states grapple with the fallout, one thing is clear: the struggle over reproductive rights in America is far from over, with each new policy, court ruling, and legislative proposal shaping the future for thousands of women and families across the Midwest.