Texas' Abortion Ban Results in Nearly 10,000 Additional Births: Study

A new analysis from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health reveals that nearly 10,000 additional babies were born in Texas over a nine-month period after the state implemented a restrictive abortion law, known as Senate Bill 8, which banned most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. The study, the first analysis of live birth rates since the law went into effect in September 2021, suggests that many pregnant individuals in Texas faced barriers to abortion access. The findings come as the U.S. Supreme Court recently overturned the right to abortion granted by Roe v. Wade, and Texas subsequently moved to ban nearly all abortions from the moment of conception.