While the country locked itself in the coronavirus pandemic and some states used the virus as an excuse to limit access to abortion, women in the country expressed fear that they could not terminate an unwanted pregnancy. A new review suggests that many may have resorted to housing options.
The study, published Tuesday through researchers from the University of Texas at Austin, analyzed the number of programs sent to Aid Access, an online page that sends abortion pills to women in the United States, between January 1 and April 11. Nationwide, they discovered a 27% increase in programs after March 20, the average start date for block orders in peak states.
The biggest improvements in programs came here from states like New York and New Jersey, where epidemics were the most serious at the time, and from states like Texas and Ohio, where governors tried to suspend abortion facilities because of the pandemic. Researchers say the buildup may simply be due to increased demand for abortion services in general, economic considerations, or the worry of getting a pregnancy pandemic pregnant, or because state abortion bans and travel concern have made home abortions an easier option.
The call for medical abortion has increased considerably in Texas, banning all “non-essential” medical surgeries and procedures, adding abortions, from March 22 to April 22. During the same consistent period, researchers discovered that requests for abortion pills in the Texas building upd. Nine 94 consistent with one hundred. California, which exceeded one of the largest epidemics at the time, but did not prohibit pandemic-related abortion, recorded a build-up of less than 30%.
The only state where demand for abortion tablets has declined, Kentucky, doubled its number of clinics in March, expanding into abortion in clinics.
Abortion pills are sometimes subject to extensive restrictions that require them to be collected at the user at a specially registered pharmacy. A federal court ruled on the suspension of the transience of those restrictions this month, saying that the user requirement “represents a heavy burden for many aborted patients” the pandemic.
But Aid Access, which completes online orders and ships them from India, is still at war with the FDA over whether it is allowed to operate. In 2018, the Food and Drug Administration told the Daily Beast that it was investigating the online page for “possible violations of U.S. law.” Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, owner of the online page, continued the organization in September in order to proceed with operations. Operations on the site were temporarily suspended in April due to foreign navigation restrictions caused by the pandemic.
However, in the 3 months under review alone, they obtained only 50,000 requests for abortion pills.
“Our effects recommend that telemedicine models for medical abortion be a political priority,” the researchers concluded. “When abortion facilities in clinics are not available, others may seek other tactics to access urgent care.”