A study published in the medical journal JAMA on Monday revealed a significant increase in the number of abortions using pills obtained outside the formal health system following the overturning of the national right to abortion. Another report by the Guttmacher Institute found that medication abortions now make up nearly two-thirds of all abortions provided by the country’s formal health system, including clinics and telemedicine abortion services.
The JAMA study analyzed data from overseas telemedicine organizations, online vendors, and community volunteers obtaining pills from outside the United States. The study reported that before the overturning of Roe, these sources provided abortion pills to about 1,400 women per month, which increased to 5,900 per month in the six months following the ruling.
Overall, the study found a decline of about 32,000 abortions in the formal health care system from July through December 2022, offset by approximately 26,000 medication abortions from sources outside the formal health system.
Dr. Abigail Aiken, the lead author of the JAMA study and an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin, noted that anti-abortion laws often lead people to seek care outside of the formal health care system.
The study was co-authored by a statistics professor at the university, the founder of Aid Access, a Europe-based organization that pioneered telemedicine abortion in the United States, and a leader of Plan C, an organization providing information about medication abortion.
Telemedicine organizations evaluated patients using medical questionnaires, issued prescriptions from European doctors, and shipped pills from Indian pharmacies. Community networks asked for pregnancy information and provided pills with instructions, sometimes for free. Online vendors, supplying a small percentage of pills, charged varying prices and provided pills with minimal instructions.
