Boxes of the medication Mifepristone used to induce a medical abortion are prepared for patients at Planned Parenthood hospital in Birmingham, Alabama, March 14, 2022.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
The abortion pill is essentially the most common method to terminate a pregnancy within the U.S., in line with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC, in a report published Wednesday, found that about 51% of abortions in 2020 were performed with the pill at or before the ninth week of pregnancy. From 2019 to 2020, abortions with the pill increased 22%, in line with the report.
The pill, mifepristone, has grow to be a flashpoint within the battle over reproductive rights within the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to abolish federal abortion rights in June. Twelve states have outlawed abortion since then, but banning the pill is difficult since it has grow to be easier to acquire.
In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Food and Drug Administration suspended a requirement that girls obtain mifepristone in person, allowing them to receive the pill by mail and at retail pharmacies. The drug agency announced in December 2021 that it will make this modification everlasting.
Anti-abortion groups last week asked a federal court in Texas to overturn the FDA’s greater than two-decade-old approval of mifepristone. The groups’ attorneys are from the Alliance Defending Freedom, a company involved within the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case that led the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and eight other senators asked the FDA in a letter last week to to expand access to mifepristone by approving its use for miscarriage management. This is able to improve women’s access to the pill in states which might be restricting access, the senators wrote.
The FDA has approved mifepristone together with the tablet misoprostol as a technique to terminate pregnancies before the tenth week. Mifepristone prevents the pregnancy from continuing and misoprostol causes contractions that vacant the uterus. The tactic is 96% to 98% effective at ending early pregnancies.
The abortion pill has grow to be an increasingly common method to end a pregnancy within the U.S. Abortions with the pill increased 154% from 2011 to 2020, in line with CDC data.
Greater than 620,000 abortions were performed within the U.S. in 2020, a 15% decrease since 2011. Just about all abortions, 93%, are performed at or before the thirteenth week of pregnancy, and 80% are done at or before the ninth week, in line with the CDC data.
Surgical abortions are the second most typical method to finish a pregnancy. About 40% of all abortions were performed with surgical procedures at or before that thirteenth week of pregnancy, in line with the CDC.
