The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) released Thursday the state’s abortion statistics for 2014, which show a decrease in the number of abortions in the state compared to the previous year.

The data release comes after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas claimed that DSHS deliberately delayed releasing the information to hide it from the public. It also follows on the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic decision striking down two provisions of the state’s omnibus anti-abortion law, HB 2.

The total number of abortions in the state decreased from 63,849 in 2013 to 54,902 in 2014—a reduction of 8,947 abortions.

Reproductive rights advocates say the data, which offers a look at the effect of HB 2 in the first full year of its implementation, provides further evidence of the law’s negative impact on access to abortion care.

“We will leave it to statisticians to undertake deeper analyses of this data, but at first glance the numbers demonstrate the devastating effect House Bill 2 had on the women of Texas,” said Trisha Trigilio, staff attorney for ACLU of Texas, in a statement.

The driving force behind the reduction appears to be a substantial decrease in the number of medication abortions: The number decreased from 16,756 in 2013 to 5,044 in 2014.

HB 2 prohibits anyone other than a physician from dispensing abortion medications. At the time that the bill was signed into law, it also required the physician follow then-outdated FDA protocols. The federal regulations have since changed, increasing the time a pregnant person has to receive a medication abortion, from 49 days to 70 days of gestation.

The statistics also show a slight increase in the number of pregnant persons who traveled out of state to obtain abortion care. The number of abortions that took place “out of state” was 754 in 2014, compared to 681 in 2013.

However, data from other states suggest a much larger increase during that time period. As Rewire previously reported, statistics from Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana appear to indicate at least 1,086 patients traveled to those states from Texas to obtain an abortion in 2014.

The DSHS’ 2014 abortion statistics also show that HB 2 had a disproportionate effect on women of color and women in low-income communities. In 2013, there were 24,063 abortions obtained by Latinas, and in 2014 that number fell to 19,654—a decrease of 18.3 percent. Additionally, Black Texans saw a decrease of 7.7 percent, while there was a decrease of 6.7 percent among white Texans.

Trigilio explained in a statement that the statistics reflect the actual intent of proponents of HB 2 and explain why the state agency kept the information “out of the public eye” prior to the Supreme Court decision. (For its part, DSHS said in response to the ACLU’s claims that it had not released the data because it wasn’t final yet.)

“Given the overall drop in abortions—especially in vulnerable communities along the border—as well as the precipitous 70 percent drop in medication abortions, these numbers show that this law never had anything do with women’s health,” said Trigilio.

Heather Busby, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, told the Austin American-Statesman that she was not surprised by the data because she has been “hearing firsthand” from people how difficult it is to obtain abortion care in the state.

The statistics are “further validation that the Supreme Court ruled correctly,” Busby said.

Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said during an interview Thursday on KFYO that the Supreme Court is “corrupt.” Patrick, who was among HB 2’s most strident supporters, argued that the statistics are a positive outcome.

“Our true purpose was to make sure the environments were safe for women, but obviously if you have fewer of abortions that’s something to celebrate,” said Patrick. 

Lawmakers passed the omnibus abortion bill in 2013 under the pretenses of protecting women’s health and safety. Since the law took effect, there have been multiple reports documenting the detrimental effect it has had on patients’ reproductive health care.

The 2014 abortion statistics also reveal that it continues to be safer to have an abortion than to carry a pregnancy to term in Texas: Between 2008 to 2013, the most recent years for which data is available, there were 691 maternal deaths in Texas, compared to just one death due abortion complications from 2008 to 2014.