Increase in provision of medications for self-managed abortions seen in the six months following the Dobbs decision
Despite implementation of state-level bans and restrictions on abortion after the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned the right to choose abortion in the United States, a considerable number of abortion seekers accessed services in the six months after Dobbs, according to a study published online March 25 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Abigail R.A. Aiken, Ph.D., from the University of Texas at Austin, and colleagues examined whether the provision of medications for self-managed abortion outside the formal health care setting increased in the six months after Dobbs. The cross-sectional study used data from sources that provide abortion medications outside the formal health care setting between March 1 and Dec. 31, 2022.
The researchers found that in the six-month post-Dobbs period (July 1 to Dec. 31, 2022), there was an increase of 27,838 in the total number of provisions of medications for self-managed abortion compared with what would have been expected based on pre-Dobbs levels. The results changed slightly when excluding imputed data (27,145). There was an estimated increase of 26,055 in actual self-managed medication abortions compared with what would have been expected had the Dobbs decision not occurred, after accounting for nonuse of medications.
“Provision of medications for self-managed abortions increased in the six months following the Dobbs decision,” the authors write. “Results suggest that a substantial number of abortion seekers accessed services despite the implementation of state-level bans and restrictions.”
