Allen G. Breed/AP
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than half of abortions in the United States are medication abortions.
CNN
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Thousands of women are proactively requesting medication for abortion in case they need it in the future, a new study finds as the abortion landscape in the U.S. changes dramatically. became.
Aid Access, a nonprofit telehealth service, offers medication abortions by mail. The group has been offering “advance supplies” of these drugs, mifepristone and misoprostol, for more than two years, and has been offering “advance supplies” of these drugs, mifepristone and misoprostol, for more than two years now, since the leak of the U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Demand has increased rapidly over the past year and a half.
According to , during the first eight months that Aid Access offered advance medical abortions (September 2021 to April 2022), it received an average of 25 orders per day. the study It was published Tuesday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. But in the two months after Dobbs' decision was leaked, from May 2022 to late June 2022, daily requests jumped nearly tenfold to about 247 per day.
After Dobbs' decision was officially announced, requests slowed for a while, averaging 89 orders per day from late June 2022 to early April 2023. However, as conflicting legal rulings created uncertainty surrounding mifepristone's approval, demand spiked again, with more than 170 requests. per day until the end of April.
Overall, Aid Access has received more than 48,000 orders for advance provision of medication abortions, according to new research. About three-quarters of those who made the request said it was to “ensure personal health and choice” or “prepare for possible abortion restrictions.”
“States considering future abortion bans had the highest application rates, and applicants were motivated by a desire to maintain reproductive autonomy,” the researchers wrote.
Compared to those who requested a medical abortion to end an existing pregnancy, those who requested an advance medical abortion were more likely to be wealthy, white, over 30 years old, and have no other children. . These differences likely reflect structural barriers, the researchers wrote.
Medication abortion is a method of ending a pregnancy by taking two pills, mifepristone and misoprostol, rather than undergoing a surgical procedure. This medication can be taken as soon as you find out you are pregnant and up to 10 weeks after the first day of your last menstrual period.
According to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than half of abortions in the United States are medication abortions, which are becoming increasingly common.
Medication abortion remains legal in the United States, but it is being challenged in court.United States Supreme Court announced The government announced last month that it would consider whether to restrict access to mifepristone, a decision that comes after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval of the drug, which has been considered “safe and effective” for decades. May overturn approvals and regulations.
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A number of Democratic-led states, including New York, California and Massachusetts, have said they are stockpiling pills that can be used for medication abortions.
New York Gov. Cathy Hochul said in April that “anti-choice extremists have shown they are more than just subverting Roe and completely dismantling our nation's reproductive health system, including medical abortion and contraception.” We are trying to do that,” he said. “New York has always been a safe harbor for abortion care, and I will continue to lead the nation in taking action to protect access to abortion in our state and defending the right to reproductive autonomy.”
CNN's Jen Christensen contributed to this report.
