Forward of Supreme Courtroom ruling, a have a look at abortion medicine since Roe
The Supreme Courtroom is listening to arguments this week for a case figuring out entry to the abortion drug mifepristone. The restriction of mifepristone might make it tougher for thousands and thousands of girls to finish a being pregnant in states the place abortion is authorized.
In 2023 – the yr after the Supreme Courtroom overturned Roe v. Wade – a couple of million abortions occurred within the formal U.S. healthcare system, in keeping with a report from the Guttmacher Institute, a analysis and coverage group that helps abortion rights. Of these abortions, 63% have been finished with medicine.
This is how the utilization of abortion medicine has modified previously twenty years:
Treatment abortion elevated the yr after Roe v. Wade was overturned
Knowledge from the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) exhibits that medicine abortions have steadily elevated over the previous twenty years.
The most typical medicine abortion routine within the U.S. entails two completely different drugs: mifepristone and misoprostol. The 2-drug routine can be utilized as much as the primary 10 weeks of being pregnant, in keeping with the FDA.
In 2001, a yr after its approval, medicine abortion accounted for six% of all abortion procedures, in keeping with Guttmacher Institute. Final yr, 63% of abortions within the U.S. have been medicine abortions.
By 2016, greater than 2.75 million girls in the US had used Mifeprex, a standard model identify of Mifepristone, KFF reported.
Which states outlaw abortion medicine?
Of the states the place abortion remains to be authorized, 12 have a minimum of one restriction that requires a number of visits to the clinic, successfully banning telehealth for medicine abortion.
Twenty-four states haven’t any restrictions round abortion medicine and don’t require telehealth appointments to be prescribed the tablets.
Abortions improve in authorized states
Virtually each state with out an abortion ban noticed a rise within the variety of abortions in 2023, in keeping with a report from Guttmacher Institute.
Greater than 160,000 individuals traveled out of state to have an abortion in 2023, greater than double the quantity present in 2020, Isaac Maddow-Zimet, an information scientist at Guttmacher, just lately advised USA TODAY.
Sates that shared a border with those who have enacted abortion bans − together with Illinois, New Mexico, Virginia and North Carolina − noticed sharp will increase, in keeping with the report.
Contributing: N’dea Yancey-Bragg
