How Tennesseans are getting abortion care without leaving the state

Fewer people are traveling out of state for abortion care — but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re getting fewer abortions.

Following the end of Roe v. Wade, there was a spike in people traveling out of state for reproductive care, including thousands of people from Tennessee, which has one of the strictest abortion bans in the nation.

In 2024, more than 10,020 Tennessee residents travelled out of state to obtain an abortion, according to a new report from the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports reproductive rights.

So far this year, those numbers have fallen: in the first six months of 2025, there was an 8% decline in patients traveling to states where abortion remains legal to access care.

However, more people are being prescribed abortion pills via teleheath appointments, which allows people to receive abortion-inducing medication through the mail. Since the end of Roe v. Wade, 22 states and the District of Columbia have adopted “shield laws” that allow providers to prescribe and mail FDA-approved abortion pills anywhere in the country, keeping telehealth options widely accessible in states with strict abortion bans. The FDA also recently approved another generic version of mifepristone, one of the most commonly-prescribed abortion medications, triggering widespread outrage from conservatives and anti-abortion organizations.

Conservative lawmakers in several states, including Tennessee, have tried to legislate against this trend: in 2024, Rep. Gino Bulso, R-Brentwood, introduced a bill that would allow family members to sue providers in other states for prescribing abortion-inducing medication. And earlier this month, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. alarmed abortion rights advocates by announcing that the FDA would launch a review of the safety of mifepristone.