Jan. 2 (UPI) — A new study finds that thousands of women who are not pregnant are stocking up on abortion pills to “prepare for possible abortion restrictions” in certain states.
The study, published Tuesday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, shows prescription requests for mifepristone and misoprostol before pregnancy — a practice known as advance provision — have soared since the Supreme Court overturned federal abortion rights in 2022.
“Physicians in the United States do not routinely engage in advance provision, yet there is considerable interest among U.S. populations,” the study says. “Following recent abortion bans, advance provision could allow people to have abortion medications immediately available if needed.”
Mifepristone and misoprostol are usually prescribed to women during the first 13 weeks of pregnancy.
Researchers examined advance provision requests from Aid Access starting in September 2021, when the online health organization started offering abortion pills in the United States to women who were not pregnant. They found a total of 48,404 advance provision requests through April 2023.
Since the Supreme Court decision to overturn abortion rights was leaked in May 2022, the weekly rate of advance provision requests jumped from an average of 25 per day to 118 per day, according to Dr. Abigail Aiken, associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin and co-author of the study.
“The most common reasons for requesting advance provision were to ensure personal health and choice and to prepare for possible abortion restrictions,” the study says.
Researchers also compared the rates of advance provision requests in the 13 states that banned abortion following the Supreme Court decision; the two states with 6-week bans; the 13 states, plus Washington, D.C., that could still ban or restrict abortion and the remaining 22 states with no current or planned changes.
They found the rates of advance provision requests were highest in those states where abortion bans were expected, much more so than in states where abortion was already banned.
“People were obviously paying attention and seeing the threat of abortion access either going away or being reduced where they were and thinking, ‘I need to get prepared for that,'” Aiken said.
Of those asking for advance provisions, the study found most women tended to be older than 30, white, childless and living in urban neighborhoods with lower poverty rates. Aid Access offers free services to pregnant patients who need financial assistance, but requires those requesting advance provisions to pay $110.
“The demographic differences in requestors of advance provision vs. self-management likely reflect structural barriers,” the study says. “A key focus for services will be ensuring affordability, visibility, and access for racial and ethnic minority groups and marginalized groups.”
