Medication abortion accounts for more than half of all abortions in the U.S., and typically involves two drugs: mifepristone and misoprostol. A research letter published Tuesday in JAMA Internal Medicine looked at requests for these pills from people who weren’t pregnant and sought them through Aid Access, a European online telemedicine service that prescribes them for future and immediate use.
Aid Access received about 48,400 requests from across the U.S. for so-called “advance provision” from September 2021 through April 2023. Requests were highest right after news leaked in May 2022 that the Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade — but before the formal announcement that June, researchers found.
Nationally, the average number of daily requests shot up nearly tenfold, from about 25 in the eight months before the leak to 247 after the leak. In states where an abortion ban was inevitable, the average weekly request rate rose nearly ninefold.
Not to mention that this is all in a country where healthcare coverage can end when the insurance company feels like and they can say they “cover” something but only pay $10 towards a $700 bill until you meet the deductible, medications not included. For those that decide to have a child with insurance, appointments can cost hundreds per appointment. You can to buy new clothes constantly what you may never wear again. You have to sit on the phone for hours hoping you are not hung up on to talk to insurance figuring out why something wasn’t covered when you triple checked it was. You have to buy prenatal medication and also things for each of the symptoms, sometimes multiple things for each symptom.
Discomfort/pain/anxiety/depression/things you already didn’t have time for and now have less time for aside, it’s EXPENSIVE to even try and be sort of comfortable. Expensive in both time and also money.