More Women Choose Abortion Pills as States Crack Down

The fall of Roe v. Wade nearly two years ago fundamentally changed when, how and where women get abortions. Medication abortions have become more common despite the elimination of federal protections for the procedure, new data show. 

Medication abortion rose to account for nearly two-thirds of abortions in the U.S. in 2023, according to a report released Tuesday by the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights. In 2020, medication abortion, a two-drug regimen approved to terminate pregnancies up to 10 weeks of gestation, accounted for 53% of U.S. procedures.

Guttmacher’s report showed that the number and rate of abortions performed in the U.S. climbed in 2023 even with near-total bans on the procedure in more than a dozen states. Abortion clinics have added staff, hours and locations in states where abortion is legal. Advocacy groups have increased funding for traveling patients.