Ahead of the Ban: How Advance Provision Abortion Pills Are Reshaping Access

1/21/2025
by Carrie N. Baker, Ms. Magazine

An increasing number of healthcare providers are prescribing abortion pills in advance of pregnancy, and many people are ordering these pills to have on hand in case they or a loved one needs them. Between September 2021 and April 2023, over 40,000 people ordered advance provision abortion pills. In one recent national survey, 65 percent of respondents said they would be interested in having these medications on hand. …

New research reveals women’s motivations for ordering abortion pills in advance, which include concerns about growing legal restrictions, a desire for a backup plan, the need to avoid health risks and taking back control in the face of looming abortion restrictions. The study was based on in-depth interviews with 39 people who ordered abortion pills in advance of needing them from the online telemedicine organization Aid Access between January 2022 and April 2023.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2025/01/21/advance-provision-abortion-pills/

22.01.2025

Commentary

abortion pills

advance provision of abortion pills

Americans stockpile abortion pills and hormones ahead of ‘reproductive apocalypse’ under Trump

Healthcare providers report unprecedented demand for reproductive and gender-affirming medications: ‘We’ve never seen this before’

Emily Shugerman
Thu 7 Nov 2024

When the presidential election results were handed down on Wednesday, Rebecca Gomperts, the founder of Aid Access, the No 1 supplier of abortion pills by mail in the United States, was huddled in a Paris apartment with her team of eight American physicians and 15 support staff. The group – which usually operates remotely, shipping out more than 9,000 abortion pills a month – had convened in person before the election, knowing they might have to spring into action.

They were right: as news of Trump’s victory spread, the website received more than 5,000 requests for abortion pills in less than 12 hours – a surge even larger than the day after Roe v Wade fell. “I can see all the new requests ticking in as we’re talking,” Gomperts said in a phone call on Wednesday afternoon. “We’ve never seen this before.”

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/07/abortion-pills-hormones-trump

U.S. Supreme Court Challenge to Abortion Pills Could Boost Illegal Imports

Safeguarding access to pills from online foreign distributors may become a flashpoint in the reproductive care battle

by Chloe Searchinger
April 5, 2024

After hearing oral arguments last week, the Supreme Court appeared dubious of the plaintiff's legal challenge to the abortion pill in Food and Drug Administration (FDA) v. Hippocratic Alliance of Medicine, the latest major abortion case since Dobbs v. Jackson overturned the constitutional guarantee to an abortion. Even though this outlook could lead pro-choice activists to breathe a minor sigh of relief and temporarily quell Big Pharma's fear over other challenges to FDA approvals, one indirect consequence regardless of the case outcome is the growing American reliance on imported abortion pills from overseas.

This manner of accessing abortion has been increasing in popularity since Dobbs, and safeguarding the provision of these pills from unapproved foreign distributors could soon become a flashpoint in the American battle over reproductive care, given that these imports are illegal because they operate outside the formal U.S. health-care system and beyond FDA oversight.

Continued: https://www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/us-supreme-court-challenge-abortion-pills-could-boost-illegal-imports

6 Women Reveal Why They’re Stocking Up on the Abortion Pill

By Yerin Kim
Jan 29/2024

Courtney, 27, learned about advance provision — a practice that involves ordering abortion pills as a precautionary measure — during a TikTok scroll. Once she found there were telehealth organizations safely shipping abortion pills to states with abortion bans, she sought her own supply. Living in Arkansas, where abortion is completely banned, paired with recently learning that she'd been taking a medication that had made her birth control ineffective, Courtney requested advance-provision pills through Aid Access, a nonprofit providing access to medication abortion by mail.

"If I ever was in the position of being pregnant and wanting to terminate, I would have the option to decide that for myself in the comfort of my home."

Continued: https://www.popsugar.com/fitness/abortion-pill-advance-provision-49332675

29.01.2024