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Fewer states allow abortions, yet American women are having more

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On a commercial stretch of Queens, New York, across from a hair-braiding salon and next to a McDonald’s, two security guards mark the entrance to the Jamaica Sexual Health Clinic. For years this has been the neighbourhood’s go-to place for STI testing and HIV treatment. Joaquin Aracena, from the Bureau of Public Health Clinics, proudly shows its newest addition: the reproductive-health wing. With freshly painted white walls and pastel-green doors, it is distinctly less institutional-looking than the rest of the clinic.

“Once they did [away with] Roe v Wade I was able to get this space,” he says. The clinic now offers walk-in medication abortions free to all. Word is clearly spreading. Last year it provided just over 700 abortions; in January it was 100, and this morning the two nurse practitioners have already sent four women home with a non-transparent bag containing the pills they need to terminate their pregnancies.

This is one of the more unexpected results of the Supreme Court’s decision in 2022 to overturn Roe, a ruling that returned the issue of abortion to states and triggered bans. That gave the city’s government new energy to take a more active role in co-ordinating access to abortion, says the city’s health commissioner, Ashwin Vasan. This included putting up billboards in Arizona and Texas and opening clinics in underserved pockets of the city. Less than nine months after Dobbs v Jackson, the ruling that overturned Roe, the Jamaica clinic’s abortion service was up and running.

Many hurdles—practical, financial, social—can stand in a woman’s way, even where abortion is legal. One consequence of Dobbs is improved access in states with a supportive approach to abortion.

Map: The Economist

New data from the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion-rights research group, estimate that over 1m abortions were performed in America in 2023—a rise of 10% compared with 2020 and the highest number in over a decade. This is astonishing, given that the procedure is now banned in 14 states and has become restricted in several more. States bordering those with bans had the steepest rises: up by 72% in Illinois since 2020, 76% in Virginia and 257% in New Mexico.

Last year more than 160,000 women—over 400 a day—crossed state borders to terminate pregnancies, versus 81,100 in 2020 (albeit a covid-19 year). More surprising is the growth among residents of abortion-supporting states. In California locals had an estimated 21,470 more abortions in 2023 than in 2020 (accounting for 88% of the state’s increase) and in New York they had 20,460 more (97%). Overall, in states without bans, over half of the rise was the result of locals having more abortions.

Efforts to improve access in such states may help explain this growth. Several states have reduced out-of-pocket spending for patients. Illinois, New Mexico and New York have increased their Medicaid reimbursement rates for first- and second-trimester abortion procedures by more than 200%, according to forthcoming analysis by KFF, a health-research group. In ten states health insurers are now required to cover abortion, up from six before Dobbs.

Map: The Economist

Nothing has helped expand access as much as abortion pills, which now account for 63% of abortions in America, up from 45% in 2019 (see chart). Medication abortions are cheaper than procedural ones, and easier for clinics to provide and (especially in rural areas) for patients to receive. They are effective in the first trimester, when 94% of abortions happen. Telehealth experiments during the pandemic helped fuel the expansion, as did a loosening of regulations on their use and distribution. Next week the Supreme Court will consider whether the rules should be tightened again.

Whereas in 2020 only 7% of providers offered abortions via telemedicine, by 2022 that had increased to 31%. Mai Fleming from Hey Jane, a virtual-only abortion provider, says she can offer medication abortions at “a fraction” of the cost of bricks-and-mortar clinics. She has seen particularly large increases in orders from states that border restrictive states, such as Colorado, Illinois and New Mexico.

Abortion havens have also solidified legal protections, both for patients (eg, data privacy) and providers (eg, malpractice insurance). Some have amended state constitutions to include a right to abortion. Six states now have telemedicine shield laws that protect licensed practitioners from prosecution if they prescribe and send pills to patients in states that ban abortion.

Alternative explanations for the nationwide rise in abortions, beyond the spread of pills and efforts to lower barriers, do not seem to hold water. It does not, for example, appear to stem from a spike in unplanned pregnancies, which—a short bump during the covid pandemic excepted—show little sign of change since Dobbs.

It would be wrong to conclude that all is fine in post-Roe America. Abortion pills may be a godsend for early unplanned pregnancies, but for women in states with bans who need an abortion later—often due to fetal abnormalities detected at the 20-week scan—getting an abortion is harder than it has been for decades.

Correction (March 19th 2024): An earlier version of this article misstated the number of women who crossed state borders to terminate pregnancies in 2020. Sorry.

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Economics

Why the president must not be lexicographer-in-chief

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Who decides what legal terms mean? If it is Donald Trump, God help America

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Economics

Inflation rate slipped to 2.1% in April, lower than expected, Fed’s preferred gauge shows

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Inflation rate slipped to 2.1% in April, lower than expected, Fed’s preferred gauge shows

Inflation barely budged in April as tariffs President Donald Trump implemented in the early part of the month had yet to show up in consumer prices, the Commerce Department reported Friday.

The personal consumption expenditures price index, the Federal Reserve’s key inflation measure, increased just 0.1% for the month, putting the annual inflation rate at 2.1%. The monthly reading was in line with the Dow Jones consensus forecast while the annual level was 0.1 percentage point lower.

Excluding food and energy, the core reading that tends to get even greater focus from Fed policymakers showed readings of 0.1% and 2.5%, against respective estimates of 0.1% and 2.6%.

Consumer spending, though, slowed sharply for the month, posting just a 0.2% increase, in line with the consensus but slower than the 0.7% rate in March. A more cautious consumer mood also was reflected in the personal savings rate, which jumped to 4.9%, up from 0.6 percentage point in March to the highest level in nearly a year.

Personal income surged 0.8%, a slight increase from the prior month but well ahead of the forecast for 0.3%.

Markets showed little reaction to the news, with stock futures continuing to point lower and Treasury yields mixed.

People shop at a grocery store in Brooklyn on May 13, 2025 in New York City.

Spencer Platt | Getty Images

Trump has been pushing the Fed to lower its key interest rate as inflation has continued to gravitate back to the central bank’s 2% target. However, policymakers have been hesitant to move as they await the longer-term impacts of the president’s trade policy.

On Thursday, Trump and Fed Chair Jerome Powell held their first face-to-face meeting since the president started his second term. However, a Fed statement indicated the future path of monetary policy was not discussed and stressed that decisions would be made free of political considerations.

Trump slapped across-the-board 10% duties on all U.S. imports, part of an effort to even out a trading landscape in which the U.S. ran a record $140.5 billion deficit in March. In addition to the general tariffs, Trump launched selective reciprocal tariffs much higher than the 10% general charge.

Since then, though, Trump has backed off the more severe tariffs in favor of a 90-day negotiating period with the affected countries. Earlier this week, an international court struck down the tariffs, saying Trump exceeded his authority and didn’t prove that national security was threatened by the trade issues.

Then in the latest installment of the drama, an appeals court allowed a White House effort for a temporary stay of the order from the U.S. Court of International Trade.

Economists worry that tariffs could spark another round of inflation, though the historical record shows that their impact is often minimal.

At their policy meeting earlier this month, Fed officials also expressed worry about potential tariff inflation, particularly at a time when concerns are rising about the labor market. Higher prices and slower economic growth can yield stagflation, a phenomenon the U.S. hasn’t seen since the early 1980s.

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Economics

German inflation May 2025

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19 May 2025, Berlin: Apricots are sold at a greengrocer for 7.98 euros per kilogram. Grapes and papaya are also on offer.

Photo by Jens Kalaene/picture alliance via Getty Images

Germany’s annual inflation hit 2.1% in May approaching the European Central Bank’s 2% target but coming in slightly hotter than analyst estimates, preliminary data from statistics office Destatis showed Friday.

The print compares with a 2.2% reading in April and with a Reuters projection of 2%.

The print is harmonized across the euro zone for comparability.

So-called core inflation, which strips out more volatile food and energy prices, dipped slightly from April’s 2.8% to 2.9% in May. The closely watched services print meanwhile eased sharply, coming in at 3.4% compared to 3.9% in the previous month.

Energy prices fell markedly for the second month in a row, tumbling by 4.6% in May.

Germany’s consumer price index has been closing in on the European Central Bank’s 2% target over recent months, in a positive signal amid ongoing uncertainty about the economic outlook for Europe’s largest economy.

Domestic and global issues have mired expectations for Germany’s financial future.

One the one hand, U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs could damage economic growth, given Germany’s status as an export-reliant country, though the potential impact of such duties on inflation remains unclear. But frequent policy shifts and developments have been muddying the picture.

On the other hand, Germany’s newly minted government is starting to get to work and has made the economy a top priority. Questions linger about when and to what extent the new Berlin administration’s policy plans might be realized.

The ECB is set to make its next interest rate decision on June 5, with traders last pricing in an over 96% chance of a quarter point interest rate reduction, according to LSEG data. Back in April, the central bank had cut its deposit facility rate by 25 basis points to 2.25%.

This is a breaking news story, please check back for updates.

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