Why Have Abortions Risen in the US?
Summary from the AllSides News Team
More states limited access to abortion following the reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022. Meanwhile, abortions in the U.S. have risen.
The Details: A report from the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion rights advocacy group, says over 1 million abortions occurred in the U.S. in 2023. "This represents a rate of 15.7 abortions per 1,000 women of reproductive age, and is a 10% increase since 2020," according to the report. Medication abortions using pills like mifepristone accounted for 63% of all U.S. abortions in 2023, a jump from 53% in 2020.
Better Access: The Economist (Lean Left bias) highlighted how Roe's reversal ruling gave cities like New York "new energy to take a much more active role in co-ordinating access to the procedure," and suggested that "one of the most positive things to come out of Dobbs may well turn out to be improved access in states with a supportive approach to abortion."
Government Deception: Many voices on the right criticized the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and pharmacies for purportedly pushing abortion pills and ignoring safety concerns. In 2021, "the FDA eliminated the requirement that the drugs be dispensed during an in-person office visit," said a writer for National Review (Right bias). "This means that women can take these high-risk drugs without ever being seen by a health-care provider and physically examined for dangerous contraindications such as ectopic pregnancy."
Featured Coverage of this Story
From the Right
Popping Abortion Pills Is Way More Dangerous Than Big Pharma Wants Women To KnowThis month, it was reported that two of the country’s largest pharmaceutical retailers will begin dispensing abortion-inducing medications mifepristone and misoprostol. This roll-out will start in “selected” pharmacies in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, with pharmacies in New York, Pennsylvania, California, and Illinois following suit in the ensuing weeks and months. What has not changed is that, for now, a prescription will still be required to procure these medications from either a telemedicine service or an in-person provider.
Before this announcement, the FDA limited the dispensing of mifepristone and misoprostol to a subset of specialty...
From the Left
Fewer states allow abortions, yet American women are having moreOn a commercial stretch of Queens, New York, across from a hair-braiding salon and next to a McDonald’s, two security guards mark the entrance to the Jamaica Sexual Health Clinic. For decades this has been the neighbourhood’s go-to place for sti testing and hiv treatment. Joaquin Aracena, from the Bureau of Public Health Clinics, proudly shows its newest addition: the reproductive-health wing. With freshly painted white walls and pastel-green doors, it is distinctly less institutional-looking than the rest of the clinic.
“Once they did [away with] Roe v Wade I was able to get this space,” he says. The...
From the Center
More Women Choose Abortion Pills as States Crack DownThe 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...
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