A Seattle City Council committee Tuesday will hear a report on an “influx of healthcare refugees seeking care from other states that have restricted access to abortion” to Washington State in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision upending the federal right to abortion access.

The Public Safety and Human Services Committee 9:30 AM session will include an update on the Northwest Abortion Access Fund, the 2017 effort the city and county-boosted with $2.25 million to help address the influx.

“Between April 2022 and March 2023, Washington State saw its number of monthly abortions increase by 16.5%, or an additional 290 procedures per month,” a council brief on the Tuesday session reports.

With an injection of $750,000 in city and county money in 2022, the fund was boosted by another $1.5 million by the city this year.

The access fund spending is used to coordinate payment and/or logistics for medical care, travel and accommodation for individuals accessing abortion services in the region, the council says.

According to Tuesday’s update (PDF), the fund has “supported 757 individuals in accessing abortion services locally” and spent around 36% of the allocated funding. The report says 72% of funding paid for medical services and 28% paid for travel and lodging. 75% of the funding for medical services went to Seattle-based providers. 45% of the individuals served were non-Washington residents travelling to the state for abortion care,

Officials say the fund is projected to have approximately $300,000 carryover from city and county funding into 2024.

Learn more on Seattle.gov’s Protecting Abortion Access page.

UPDATE: This post has been updated to clarify the fund was created in 2017 and does not rely solely on city and county funding.

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