The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that in 2019, 629,898 legal induced abortions occurred in 47 states, the District of Columbia and New York City, not including California, Maryland and New Hampshire. One analysis estimated that with Roe overturned, about 100,000 fewer abortions will occur in the US each year.

You will see a lot of arguments about enacting bans or additional restrictions in swing states, but if those states had legislative majorities and governors who intended to enact restrictions on abortion, they likely would have passed those restrictions by now.

Abortion via pills will be exceptionally tough to regulate or eliminate. Telehealth will allow those who want chemical abortions to consult doctors in other states. And we may well see abortion clinics set up shop near state lines in abortion-permitting states that border those where it’s banned.

The end of Roe may well launch a new era where America has somewhat fewer abortions, and those who seek to terminate their pregnancies travel to the nearest pro-abortion state or obtain abortion pills through the mail. This is neither “The Handmaid’s Tale”–style misogynist dystopia that the pro-choice crowd warns about, nor the child-welcoming utopia that pro-lifers wish to see.