Hundreds of girls month-to-month entry abortion drugs in restricted states
In 2023, a yr after the Supreme Court docket overturned Roe v. Wade, 63% of abortions nationwide had been being accomplished with medicines like mifepristone and misoprostol, in response to perception supplied by the Guttmacher Institute beforehand reported by USA TODAY.
The primary concrete knowledge emerged Tuesday on the variety of girls who accessed abortion drugs in 2023 from states with abortion bans now in place. The survey, put out by #WeCount backed by the Society of Household Planning, discovered that round 8,000 girls a month who dwell in states with abortion restrictions are capable of get abortion drugs from states with out restrictions because of telehealth companies.
Telehealth taking part in bigger function in abortion care than ever earlier than
The #WeCount report discovered that round 86,000 abortions had been carried out month-to-month within the U.S in 2023, up 4,000 a month since 2022. That is excluding the roughly 8,000 a month accessed underneath protect legal guidelines final yr.
Defend legal guidelines shield medical doctors, nurse practitioners and midwives as they prescribe abortion drugs to sufferers in states with out entry to them. The 5 states protected by protect legal guidelines are Massachusetts, Washington, Colorado, Vermont and New York, in response to the report. Defend legal guidelines haven’t but been challenged in court docket.
“Whilst the whole nationwide variety of abortions nationally has elevated, we will not lose sight of the truth that entry to in-person abortion care has just about disappeared in states the place abortion is banned,” Alison Norris, Co-Chair of #WeCount mentioned within the report.
Telehealth performs a bigger function in abortion care than ever earlier than. On the shut of 2023, there have been round 17,000 medical abortions being carried out by telehealth every month, together with each bodily and digital clinics, in response to the report.
“Entry to remedy abortion by telehealth continues to play an ever-increasing function in abortion care nationwide—even because the Supreme Court docket weighs the destiny of telehealth abortion care.” Dr. Ushma Upadhya, the opposite Co-Chair of #WeCount, added.
“The necessity for abortion care throughout the nation calls for that suppliers, advocates, and lawmakers proceed to come back collectively to innovate new methods to assist folks entry abortion care.”
#WeCount is a nationwide abortion reporting effort that goals to measure month-to-month abortion utilization by state following the US 2022 Dobbs v Jackson’s Ladies’s Well being Group Supreme Court docket determination.
