by Julianne McShane
May 17, 2024
Introduction:
Conclusion:(Mother Jones) Something curious has happened since the Supreme Court handed down the Dobbs decision in June 2022: More people have obtained abortions, despite increasing barriers to access.
That’s one of the central findings of a new report released Tuesday, which found that there were nearly 86,000 average abortions per month in 2023, compared to about 82,000 a month in 2022. The rise is due, in part, to the increasing popularity of telehealth abortions, in which providers in blue states virtually prescribe and mail abortion pills—including to patients in red states—thanks to so-called shield laws that protect them from prosecution. According to the report, telehealth abortions accounted for nearly 1 in 5 abortions nationwide—about 19 percent—from October to December of last year.
Clinics are essential options for people who only learn about their pregnancy at, or after, 10 to 12 weeks at which point they are no longer eligible for medication abortions. Telemedicine is also not an option for those who learn something about their pregnancy after the first trimester that makes them need or want to terminate it. Teens and low-income people, in particular, also face major barriers to traveling for in-person care if they reside in states that no longer have operating clinics.
“Our biggest concern is that with the rising numbers, people will interpret this as, ‘everybody’s getting their abortion,'” Upadhyay says. “It’s so important to highlight that there’s a lot of unmet need…there are people who are just not getting the abortions and continue to be forced to carry unwanted pregnancies to term.
Read more here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2 ... ntended/