Women travelling from US to get abortions in UK after Roe v Wade overturned

Exclusive: ‘I wonder if they are just so worried by the political climate that they are like, ‘I’m just going to go there’,’ clinical director says

Roe v Wade was overturned in the US in June (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Women have travelled from the US to get abortions in the UK after millions of them lost their legal right to have a termination in their home country.

One of the UK’s leading abortion providers told The Independent women have journeyed to access their services since Roe v Wade – the landmark decision that legalised abortion nationwide in 1973 – was overturned by the US Supreme Court in June.

Since then, abortion services across the US have profoundly changed, with most of the states who have rapidly curtailed pregnancy terminations in the wake of Roe’s dismantling choosing not to allow pregnancy terminations even in cases of rape or incest.

Sarah Salkeld, an associate clinic director at MSI Reproductive Choices UK, said that while only a handful, the number of women coming from the US has increased since Roe v Wade was axed.

“We are seeing people from America travel here for abortions, which is just unbelievable,” she said. “They are coming all this way just to access abortions.”

“I wonder if they are just so worried by the political climate that they are like, ‘I’m just going to go there’. I would feel worried if I was in America given what has happened.”

Ms Salkeld questioned whether the women were concerned someone might “tell on them” if they were to cross state lines to get an abortion in their home country.

The director explained she had personally seen a few patients come over from Florida for abortions.

“Clearly, they have got the money to do that but other people have not,” the director, who oversees early medical abortion and contraception, added.

She has told her US patients to stay in the UK for a few days in case they experience health complications from their abortion, she said.

“But people can’t always do that. We advise them to obviously, but people can go against medical advice,” she added.

Overturning the decades-old ruling sparked widespread outrage in the US (AP)

She explained one of her colleagues who works for Aid Access, which helps women in the US access abortions, has been working in Texas, where she had encountered many women travelling to Mexico for abortions.

“People can go over to Mexico and get abortion medication over the counter there. So there is a lot of travel there. Obviously, they are at risk, but they do it.”

While the overturning of Roe v Wade is predicted to result in over half of US states enforcing abortion bans, travelling to another state to get a pregnancy termination is wholly legal.

When approached by The Independent for comment, the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, another leading UK abortion provider, said they had not treated any women from the US since Roe’s overturning.