Medication abortion accounts for more than half of all abortions in the United States. The Associated Press reports two drugs: mifepristone and misoprostol as the most common.
A research letter published by JAMA Internal Medicine and obtained by the AP looked at requests for these pills from people who weren't pregnant and sought them through Aid Access, a European online telemedicine service that prescribes them for future and immediate use. Aid Access received approximately 48,400 requests from the U.S. for supposed "advance provision" between September 2021 through April 2023.
The New York Times reported 147,112 requests were from women seeking to terminate existing pregnancies. Demand reached its highest point after news leaked in May 2022 that the Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade.
Dr. Abigal Aiken, associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin alongside a colleague said in a letter to the Associated Press, "People are looking at looming threats to reproductive health access, looming threats to their reproductive rights, and potentially thinking to themselves: 'How can I prepare for this?' Or 'how can I get around this or get out ahead of this'?"
According to Wired, most doctors in the U.S. do not let patients order abortion pills before they're pregnant. "It's definitely something that's never been standard practice here," revealed Dr. Aiken. Her study proves that demand for these medications requested by women who weren't even pregnant yet spiked when news came to light that reproductive health care access was under threat.
Why Does This Matter?
Because in 2024, the U.S. will face its next big test for reproductive rights when the US Supreme Court hears a case challenging access to mifepristone. Should the court side with anti-abortion activists who originally filed the case against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, medication abortion access would become at risk nationwide. Considering the potential change and harm it could cause, it's plausible that even more women will start loading up on the medication. Abortion rejectionists oppose advance provision and claim abortion medication is dangerous while abortion right supporters say prescribing it in case of eventual necessity increases access and reinforces that the pills are safe, as many studies have shown.
"This is a way of taking back some control," Dr. Aiken expressed. "Of being in control of your own reproductive destiny."
