Who's stockpiling abortion pills amid bans
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A growing number of people are requesting abortion medications before they're pregnant, a shift driven in part by fears of future abortion bans, a study led by a University of Washington researcher suggests.
Why it matters: The number of states enforcing near-total abortion bans since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022 has varied, but as of this month, 41 states have either restrictions on abortions after a certain point in pregnancy or near total bans, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
Driving the news: The study published this month in the Journal of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists found that the option to order abortion pills in advance of need was being used more by people who already had fewer barriers to abortion access.
What they did: Researchers analyzed medical records from more than 20,000 patients across 25 states who received abortion pills via the telehealth service Aid Access between August 2021 and March 2023.
- They compared people who ordered pills in case they might need them later with those who were already pregnant and seeking an abortion.
What they found: Advance provision users were mostly white (72%), child-free (80%) and living in metro areas, not lower-resource counties, per the study.
- Among them, 70% said they feared future legal restrictions, the study found.
- Orders spiked during political moments like Roe v. Wade's reversal or major media coverage, said lead author Anna Fiastro, a researcher in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine.
What they're saying: The findings shed light on how abortion pills "can possibly alleviate barriers in accessing reproductive healthcare due to state-level abortion restrictions," said Fiastro in a UW Medicine news article.