An increasing number of American women are choosing to use abortion pills rather than undergo procedures at abortion clinics, despite red-state efforts to limit access to the pills in the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Chemical abortions accounted for 63 percent of all abortions last year, up from 53 percent in 2020 and 39 percent in 2017, according to new research from the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion policy-research organization. The study also found that the overall number of abortions increased in 2023, even as twelve Republican-led states passed laws limiting access to the procedure. The research does not include abortions managed outside the health-care system or abortion medications mailed to women in states where abortion is banned.
The rise in medication abortion is partially attributable to the Biden administration’s looser regulatory standards surrounding the use of mifepristone, a hormone blocker commonly used with medication misoprostol for medication abortion.
In 2021, the Food and Drug Administration permanently lifted rules requiring patients to obtain abortion pills in-person from certified health-care providers. As a result, women seeking abortions are allowed to receive the pills by mail, a practice being challenged at the Supreme Court.
Oral arguments for the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration case are set to take place later this month. The pro-life Alliance for Defending Freedom is representing the plaintiffs, four medical associations and four doctors, and challenging the FDA’s decision to loosen restrictions on the use of mifepristone.
Over a dozen red states have restricted abortion since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and restored the right of states to decide on the legality of abortion. Five states without six-week abortion bans have restricted the ability of abortion-seekers to obtain mifepristone through telemedicine. Pharmacy chains CVS and Walgreens are beginning to sell mifepristone in select states after the FDA issued new guidance in January 2023 allowing pharmacies to sell the drug. The FDA first approved mifepristone in 2000 and medicated abortions have increased steadily ever since, the Guttmacher Institute research shows.
Studies have shown abortion restrictions have resulted in fewer abortions in the states with restrictions and more abortions in states without significant restrictions. Since Dobbs, Democrats have successfully made abortion a central campaign issue and won multiple single-issue ballot referenda protecting abortion rights.
Last week, Vice President Kamala Harris became the first vice president to visit an abortion clinic. She went to an abortion clinic in St. Paul, Minnesota and praised the state’s lack of abortion restrictions, a reflection of the Biden administration’s support for abortion on demand. In his State of the Union address, President Joe Biden promised to codify Roe if he is elected to second term and directly criticized the Supreme Court for its ruling.