Women in the US are taking their abortion pills
Are prescriptions for mifepristone really coming under threat? Aiken’s analysis indicates that abortion demand spikes during the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court case
Aiken’s study shows that demand for abortion pills made by women who weren’t yet pregnant spiked during events when reproductive health care access appeared under threat. This matters, because in 2024, the US will face its next big test for reproductive freedoms, when the US Supreme Court hears a case challenging access to mifepristone, one of the two drugs typically used in a medication abortion. If the court sides with the anti-abortion activists who brought the case against the US Food and Drug Administration, medication abortion access may be in jeopardy nationwide. It’s likely that even more people will start stocking up with this potentially hazardous change.
Aiken looked at the locations of patients who requested advance provision. There was a spike in requests from states that had proposed abortion restrictions.
“Requests … go up and they go up quite rapidly,” she says. “So it seems possible that people are really responding to the threat of reduced abortion access.”
There was a noticeable increase in the spring of 2023, when a lawsuit was working its way through the legal system. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to weigh in on that case next year.
The data suggest that people are worried about being unable to afford abortion care, and therefore the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists commented on the analysis, describing the drug as a ” very safe and effective drug.” While some people may be able to travel to states where that care is legal, others simply cannot.”
ACOG added that federal health regulations limiting how mifepristone can be prescribed “unfortunately … leave patients unable to access mifepristone and clinicians unable to prescribe it in advance.”
The founder of Aid Access said in an email to NPR that there are “shield laws” in some states that make it hard for physicians to prescribe the pills in advance. The medication will last two years if the pack is kept sealed and doesn’t come into contact with light or heat.
Access to healthcare, and how we’re going to respond to it: How does the threat to access healthcare affect so many people and how do they can afford it?
“The biggest increases seem to be in states where there’s potential legislation coming,” she says. People are reacting to the threat to access by saying that they better prepare for it. “
She says that people are struggling to afford even abortion care that they need. “So it might be a very different financial calculus, and these financial barriers might loom large for people.”
demand for abortion pills made by women who weren’t pregnant spiked during events when reproductive health care access appeared under threat, according to a study conducted by the US Supreme Court. This comes as the court hears a case challenging access to mifepristone, one of the two drugs typically used in medication abortion. If the court sides with anti-abortion activists, medication abortion access may be in jeopardy.