Research published by abortion activists indicates that women in the USA are making more than 6,000 requests each month for online abortion pills to be self-administered at home. This is an increase of more than 3,900 per month since the Dobbs ruling.
Researchers Aiken, Starling et al measured the number of online requests for abortion pills to Aid Access. They only measured requests from those states in which Aid Access does not provide telephone abortion as part of the formal (legal) health care setting. Requests were counted before and after the Dobbs ruling that overturned Roe v Wade on June 24, 2022.
The study analysed more than 42,000 requests from women across 30 states. The average daily number of requests in the baseline period before Dobbs was 82, and after Dobbs 213. This is a 2.5-fold increase from 2,460 per month to 6,390 pm, an increase of 3,930 pm.
These additional 3,900 requests for online abortion pills are not included in the recent reporting by #WeCount, that has recently indicated a fall in abortion numbers across the formal sector of about 2,800 per month.
It is important to note that Aid Access is just one of many organisations that are currently providing online abortion pills in or into the USA, and so it is very likely that the number of self-managed medical abortions using these illegal pills is higher than reported by Aiken et al.
Discover more from Percuity
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
