Cancer is one of several conditions for which mifepristone is a potentially effective treatment. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in 2022 to allow states to regulate abortion, support for expanded access to abortion pills has significantly increased, including among those living in states with abortion bans, according to a new study from the Journal of the American Medical Association.
A sample of more than 7,000 women nationwide between the ages of 15 and 49 answered surveys in December 2021 before the Dobbs decision, and a random sampling of half the same population was surveyed again in June 2023 after the ruling.
The surveys gauged support for two models of expanded access to medication abortion: advance provision — when medication is obtained before a pregnancy and reserved for future use if necessary — and over-the-counter access at a local pharmacy or other retailer without a prescription.
Those who favored both models increased from about 49% in 2021 to 55% in 2023, while those who were opposed dropped from about 35% to 32%.
“While it is unlikely that states with abortion bans would provide medication abortion in advance or sell it over the counter at retail pharmacies should the FDA approve it, these models may still improve abortion access for people living in such states,” the study authors said. “By expanding access to abortion to brick-and-mortar and/or online pharmacies and via telehealth in states with protected access to abortion, these alternatives would offer more options where people could travel … or receive the medications from friends or family members living in states with such access.”
The study also found a slight increase in the barriers women faced to reproductive health care, including locating a clinic.
Led by Antonia Biggs, acting director of Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health at the University of California, San Francisco, the study comes days before President-elect Donald Trump takes the oath of office for his second term, and Republicans control Congress.
Lawsuits are pending that could heavily restrict nationwide access to abortion medication, and possible restrictions could be made to distribution through the mail, a major point of access for people in at least a dozen states with near-total abortion bans.
Anti-abortion groups have vowed to keep trying to revoke the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the drug mifepristone, and expressed their willingness to support Trump’s nominee to lead U.S. Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., because of his hostile approach to pharmaceutical drugs and vaccines.
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