Women in the US are stockingpiling Abortion pills
The U.S. Capitol has a Protected Look at the Threats to Abortion Access and the Legalization of a Supreme Court Decision
When access to reproductive health care is threatened in the United States, a growing number of women stock up on abortion medications to keep on hand in case they need the pills in the future, new research shows.
Requests for advance provision spiked at times and in locations where patients appeared to perceive threats to abortion access, Aiken says, such as around the time a draft U.S. Supreme Court decision was leaked in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the case that overturned a constitutional right to an abortion.
“Requests … go up and they go up quite rapidly,” she says. It seems possible that the people really are responding to the threat of reduced access to abortion.
Aiken noted a similar increase in the spring of 2023, when a lawsuit challenging access to mifepristone was working its way through the legal system. The Supreme Court is expected to decide on that case next year.
The data suggests that people are worried about needing abortion care, according to the American College of educators and gypsies who responded to the request for comment. Some people can travel to states where care is legal, but others can’t.
Patients can’t access the drug because of federal health regulations.
Nonetheless, Aid Access founder Dr. Rebecca Gomperts said in an email to NPR that some U.S.-based physicians living in states that have enacted protections for providers known as “shield laws” are prescribing the pills in advance. Gomperts said the medication has a shelf life of “at least two years as long as the blister pack is kept sealed, and is not exposed to heat, light, or moisture.”
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“The biggest increases seem to be in states where there’s potential legislation coming,” she says. “It seems like people are reacting to that potential threat to access with, ‘Oh, I better get prepared for what might be coming.’ “
She says that they know that people can’t afford an abortion even if they need it. The financial barriers may loom large for people.
The US Capitol has a protected look at the threats to abortion access and the legalization of a Supreme Court decision, new research shows. Requests for advance provision of abortion pills spiked at times and in locations where patients appeared to perceive threats to abortion access, Aid Access said. This comes as the Supreme Court is expected to decide on that case next year.