More Texans using telehealth options to access reproductive care
Click play to listen to this article.
Despite Texas having one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the country, more than 41,000 residents had clinician-provided abortions in 2025, an over 20 percent jump from 2024.
Isaac Maddow-Zimet, data scientist for the Guttmacher Institute and co-author of a new study, said more pregnant people are using telehealth services to access the procedure.
"It’s very possible that as more people know about telehealth as an option, they are increasingly opting for care via telehealth in their own homes," Maddow-Zimet pointed out. "That doesn’t mean that many Texans aren’t still traveling. Many are, particularly for folks later in pregnancy or people who need or prefer procedural care."
The report showed most Texans who do choose to travel go to New Mexico, Kansas or Colorado for abortion services. Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed multiple lawsuits against California and New York challenging their shield laws, which allow instate doctors to prescribe abortion medication to patients living in states with abortion bans.
Nationwide, the number of people who traveled to another state for reproductive care dropped from 154,000 in 2024 to 122,000 in 2025. Researchers said expansions to telehealth make travel less necessary. Maddow-Zimet added despite efforts to ban or restrict abortion access throughout the country, pregnant people are still finding ways to get the care they need.
"Abortion is a really common reproductive health care experience and when people need an abortion, they’re extremely motivated to get that care," Maddow-Zimet noted. "On the other hand, there’s lots of folks who are working to try to make sure that they can maintain access."
He pointed out with so many states having partial or total abortion bans, pregnant people in certain regions may face additional barriers when trying to seek out abortion care. He stressed two main groups are affected the most.
"People later in pregnancy, for whom telehealth often isn’t an option," Maddow-Zimet outlined. "Not all clinics offer care past certain numbers of weeks of gestation, and that means that people often have to travel much farther. And then adolescents, who have a lot of specific barriers to travel."
