Use of abortion pills went up by 10 percent between 2020 and 2023, accounting for nearly two-thirds of all abortions nationwide despite ongoing efforts to crack down on their accessibility, according to new data released by the Guttmacher Institute.
U.S. health systems used medication abortions for 63 percent of all abortions in 2023 compared to 53 percent in 2020. In total, there were 642,000 medication abortions performed through formal health care providers.
That number is likely an undercount because the estimate doesn't include self-managed abortions, when women seek abortion pills through community groups or abroad, Guttmacher said.
In 2023, Guttmacher's Monthly Abortion Provision Study found there were 1,026,690 abortions in the "formal US health care system," marking the first time more than 1 million abortions occurred in health care systems since 2012.
Guttmacher noted that this increase was nearly universal across all states without total abortion bans.
"Improved access to medication abortion is a positive development, but it is not a panacea," Guttmacher principal research scientist Rachel Jones said in a statement.
"As abortion restrictions proliferate post-Dobbs, medication abortion may be the most viable option—or the only option—for some people, even if they would have preferred in-person procedural care," Jones added. "Thus, it is important to keep in mind that an increase in medication abortion does not necessarily indicate that all people using this method prefer it."
The Biden administration has loosened access to medication abortion by expanding telehealth prescribing and relaxing restrictions on mifepristone, one of two drugs used in medication abortions.
The Supreme Court is scheduled on March 26 to hear arguments over those relaxed restrictions, which include allowing mifepristone to be sent in the mail. Meanwhile, CVS and Walgreens have started selling the pill in select states.
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