Four States Are Voting on Abortion Access Today, and Couples Dating Across State Lines Face Tough Questions

For anyone dating across state lines, checking where your match lives is more important than just calculating your future commute. This Election Day, abortion access is back on the ballot in four states, with voters in Idaho, Nevada, and Virginia considering measures to protect access while Missouri voters are deciding whether to undo a reproductive freedom amendment approved in 2024. These results will shape the health care available to many and revive tricky questions people have to consider when dating across state lines.A partner’s views on abortion are a dealbreaker for many singles. The Kinsey Institute’s 2025 Singles in America research study found 52 percent of singles outright would not date someone who didn’t support abortion rights, considering it a deal-breaker. But in a world where state lines decide the level of healthcare available, simply sharing the same views on reproductive health with a partner is no longer enough.Abortion is banned in 13 states, and you can date the most pro-choice person living in one of them without it changing what their local hospital is permitted to do. People in cross-state, long-distance relationships need to consider the laws when making life choices like moving or growing a family.In a 2024 Institute for Women’s Policy Research poll, nearly 60 percent of parents and people planning to have kids in the next decade said they are worried about access to abortion, OB-GYN services, and prenatal care. Half of adults living in total-abortion ban states said they are concerned about access to fertility treatment. And a 2024 Redfin survey found about three-quarters of Democratic voters want to live somewhere abortion is legal.The stakes go well beyond individual sentiment. Bans are changing who is even available to provide care at all. In Idaho, for example, after a near-total abortion ban took effect, the state lost more than a third of its practicing obstetricians. In Sandpoint, Idaho, all four of the local hospital's OB-GYNs left and its labor and delivery unit closed, sending pregnant patients more than 40 miles away to the nearest alternative. Nationally, more than 1.7 million women of reproductive age live in a "double desert" with neither abortion access nor maternity care nearby, per that same KFF Health News report.The pipeline of future doctors in these states is shrinking, too. The Association of American Medical Colleges found OB-GYN residency applicants in states with complete abortion bans fell 10.5 percent in the first cycle after Dobbs (and many doctors tend to end up practicing where they train).Fertility care is also at risk. In 2024, after Alabama’s Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos count as children, at least three IVF providers in the state paused treatment. Lawmakers passed a fix weeks later, but the conversation has continued beyond Alabama.Where someone lives can shape the reproductive care available to them, which makes it access an essential part of the conversation for anyone dating across state lines, not just whose city has a better job market or cheaper rent. For long-distance couples, deciding where to build a life together needs to involve asking the harder questions: If I needed care for a miscarriage, an ectopic pregnancy, or another complication, could I get it? And will there even be a doctor available to treat me?Today’s election results won’t answer every question long-distance couples face, but they could help determine what care is available in the states where they build their lives. And for anyone dating across state lines, that makes this Election Day personal.