Patient-Reported Experiences of Abortion Travel

Illinois is an abortion hub serving a high volume of patients who travel from midwestern and southern states for abortion care. To sustain access to quality services and reduce health care barriers, research is needed to understand the experiences of abortion travelers.

To explore the experiences of out-of-state individuals who travel to central and southern Illinois to receive abortion care.

This qualitative study used purposeful sampling to recruit 208 participants at 2 abortion clinics between November 2024 and August 2025. Participants completed the study at the time of recruitment.

Participants traveled for abortion care based on their state of residence.

Using reflexive thematic analysis, both the experiences of out-of-state abortion travelers in central and southern Illinois and the need for reduction in access barriers for those traveling for abortion were examined.

In this qualitative study of 208 abortion seekers who successfully traveled to Illinois, 128 (61.54%) self-identified as Black, 50 (24.03%) non-Hispanic White, and 30 (14.42%) as women from additional minoritized racial and ethnic groups. Participants' age ranged from 18 to 45 years. All lived in midwestern or southern states. Participants were interviewed in a private room at the clinic between November 2024 and August 2025. Participants discussed structural, logistical, and emotional challenges. Yet, they described abortion traveling as necessary because of the abortion ban and misinformation, which contributed to increased medical distrust. Medical distrust was already rooted in some participants' previous experiences of receiving biased reproductive care, and for Black women, it worsened because of historical mistreatment and discrimination. Increased medical distrust likely drove people to travel for abortion care.

These findings call for enhanced coordination of care with centralized trusted resources, equitable distribution of funding, mental health support, and attention to reduce biased care for Black women. The results also highlight the need to develop strategies to combat misinformation and increase advocacy efforts to reduce abortion stigma.