Medication abortions rose in year after Dobbs decision, report finds
Medication abortions rose in the year after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, according to a report published Tuesday by the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports access to abortion.
Medication abortions rose in the year after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, according to a report published Tuesday by the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports access to abortion.
In 2023, the first full calendar year since the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson ruling, there were about 642,700 medication abortions, accounting for about 63% of all abortions in the country, up from 492,210 medication abortions, or 53%, in 2020, according to the report.
“This increase is indicative of the fact that people are overcoming barriers to get the care they need,” said Amy Friedrich-Karnik, the director of federal policy at the Guttmacher Institute. "Abortion is health care."
Mifeprex abortion pills.Bill Greenblatt / Getty Images fileFollowing the Dobbs decision, 14 states completely ban abortion, which includes medication abortion. Another handful of states require patients to see doctors in person before they can get prescriptions for the drugs needed for medication abortion or ban shipping the medication by mail.
Medication abortion became available in the U.S. in 2000 when the Food and Drug Administration approved mifepristone, one the drugs used in the regime, for use in early abortions. A second drug, misoprostol, is taken one to two days later.
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