Cost of care, distance to clinics drives demand for self-managed abortion: Study

A study on self-managed medication abortions found the most common reason to seek one was the cost of in-clinic care.

The cost of care at clinics is a major factor driving patients to seek self-managed abortion through telemedicine, a new study published Friday found. Aid Access, a nonprofit advocacy group founded by a Dutch doctor, helps individuals access abortion by arranging to mail mifepristone and misoprostol, the pills that make up a medication abortion, directly to people -- thus, they can have a self-managed abortion, meaning they take care of it outside a traditional medical setting. The study, published in the peer-reviewed JAMA Network Open, used data from the organization. Between March 2018 and March 2020, 57,506 people from all 50 states requested self-managed medication abortion through Aid Access. Among the requests, 73.5% said they were specifically seeking self-managed abortion because they were unable to afford in-clinic care. An abortion can cost as much as $1,500, according to Planned Parenthood, and that number varies widely based on what form of abortion and if a patient has insurance that covers the procedure. Under the Hyde Amendment, federal Medicaid does not cover abortion, although some states have different rules.