Majority of abortions in U.S. done by pill, study finds

There is a growing reliance on a two-pill regimen to terminate pregnancies in the U.S., a new report from an abortion rights advocacy group finds.

The proportion of U.S. abortions administered by medication rose to more than 60 per cent in 2023, following a dramatic decline in surgical abortion access after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a report said on Tuesday.

The Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to end abortion rights allowed more than a dozen states to ban abortion with limited exceptions and close clinics, restricting access to surgical abortion procedures.

That in turn led to a growing reliance on a two-pill regimen to terminate pregnancies, with U.S. abortions administered by pill increasing 10 per cent since 2020, according to the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion rights advocacy group.

The Institute’s report is published every three years and based on data collected from U.S. abortion providers.

The survey found over 1 million total abortions were provided through the U.S. healthcare system in 2023, the first time that number exceeded a million since 2012.

“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,” said Guttmacher principal research scientist Rachel Jones, referring to the Supreme Court case that overruled Roe v. Wade’s 1973 precedent.

However, access to medication abortion also hangs in the balance.

The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on March 26 dealing with a bid by President Joe Biden’s administration to preserve broad access to mifepristone, one part of the two-pill regimen that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved in 2000 for terminating early pregnancies.