Latest news with #WeCount
USA Today
4 days ago
- Health
- USA Today
Telehealth abortions are on the rise since Roe was overturned three years ago. See charts
Three years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion, the total number of abortions continued to increase in 2024, totaling 1.14 million, a recent report found. The Dobbs decision on June 24, 2022, upheld Mississippi's ban on abortion after 15 weeks. Since then, states have enacted a range of laws from near-total abortion bans to shield laws protecting patients from other states who travel to get the procedure. As of this year, 12 states have full bans on abortion. The report was published by #WeCount, a project of the Society of Family Planning. #WeCount is a national reporting effort that tracks abortions in the United States after Roe v. Wade was overturned. Here's how the total number of abortions has changed since the Dobbs ruling: The monthly number of abortions increased in 2024 compared with prior years, according to the #WeCount report. When looking at monthly abortions in 2024, the total was higher than monthly abortions in 2023 and 2022. 'The #WeCount findings make clear that abortion bans haven't stopped people from seeking care,' Alison Norris, #WeCount's co-chair, said in a statement. 'As care shifts across state lines and into telehealth care, what's emerging is a deeply fragmented system where access depends on where you live, how much money you have, and whether you can overcome barriers to care,' Norris said. Telehealth abortions are on the rise At the end of 2024, a quarter of all abortions were delivered through telehealth − a significant increase compared with the second quarter of 2022, when 5% of abortions were provided through telehealth, according to #WeCount. Which states have shield laws for abortion care? Nearly half of all telehealth abortions provided in 2024 were in states with shield laws, the report found. According to the UCLA Center for Reproductive Health, Law, and Policy, shield laws provide "legal protections for patients, health care providers, and people assisting in the provision of certain health care in states where that care is legal from the reach of states with civil, criminal, and professional consequences related to that care." At least 22 states and the District of Columbia, have shield laws for reproductive care. California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington protect clinicians no matter where the patient is at the time reproductive care is provided, KFF reported. According to #WeCount, an average of 12,330 abortions a month were provided under shield laws at the end of 2024. Expanded protections for clinicians along with access to medication abortion have allowed patients to receive care outside states with full abortion bans. In 2023, medication abortion made up two-thirds of all abortions, the Guttmacher Institute found. The most common medication abortion regimen in the United States involves two medications: mifepristone and misoprostol. The two-drug regimen can be used up to the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, according to the FDA. Which states outlaw abortion medication? Of the states where abortion is still legal, 12 have at least one restriction that requires one or more visits to the clinic, effectively banning telehealth for medication abortion. Twenty-six states and the District of Columbia have no restrictions around abortion medication and do not require telehealth appointments to be prescribed the pills. CONTRIBUTING Kinsey Crowley
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Abortions in the US are on the rise three years after Roe v Wade was overturned
Three years after the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, erasing the national right to abortion and paving the way for more than a dozen states to ban the procedure, the number of abortions performed in the US is still on the rise – including in some states that ban the procedure. US abortion providers performed 1.14m abortions in 2024, according to new data released on Monday by #WeCount, a Society of Family Planning project that has tracked abortion provision since 2022. That's the highest number on record in recent years. 'We were really surprised to see the numbers go up over time,' said Ushma Upadhyay, a University of California, San Francisco professor who serves as co-chair of the #WeCount steering committee. 'Abortion bans haven't really stopped people from needing abortion care. It's just made it harder for them to be able to get it.' Although most of the abortions documented in #WeCount's report took place in person, a growing number of abortions are occurring through telehealth, including among patients living in one of the dozen-plus states that ban virtually all abortions. In a telehealth abortion, patients generally meet virtually with a provider before receiving abortion pills through the mail. By December 2023, 19% of abortions took place through telehealth – but by December 2024, that share had risen to 25%. In the last three months of 2024 alone, more than 70,000 abortions were performed through telehealth. These abortions are particularly popular in states with large rural regions, such as Montana, Nevada and Hawaii. Much of the increase in telehealth abortions can be attributed to the spread of 'shield laws'. Enacted by at least eight states since Roe's fall, these controversial laws are designed to protect abortion providers who treat women in states with bans from prosecution by those states. Demand for shield-law abortions has soared over the last two years. In July 2023, when the first shield-law abortion providers started operating, they facilitated fewer than 6,000 abortions for people living in states that ban almost all abortions or that restrict telehealth abortions. In December 2024, these providers performed almost 14,000 abortions. 'There's more abortion taking place in Mississippi today than there was prior to Dobbs,' said Dr Angel Foster, a co-founder of the Massachusetts Medication Abortion Access Project (Map), which uses shield laws to ship abortion pills out to about 2,500 patients a month. 'That really speaks to how little access some folks had to in-clinic abortion care prior to Dobbs and how shield law provision and telemedicine has really stepped into that space.' #WeCount also collected information on how many abortions were reported to government authorities in states with abortion bans in 2024. On average, states where abortion is totally banned saw just 30 in-person abortions a month, #WeCount found. All abortion bans permit abortions in emergency situations, but activists have long contended that that bans' exceptions are written so narrowly and vaguely that they are unworkable in practice. Since Roe fell, dozens of women have come forward to say they were denied emergency abortions. In Upadhyay's view, the #WeCount data backs up the claim that exceptions don't work. 'That seems very low,' Upadhyay said. 'That is something that I think states with abortion bans should be paying attention to and be concerned about.' The future of shield laws is now in doubt, as anti-abortion activists are trying to test their durability in court. Texas has sued a New York doctor over accusations that she mailed abortion pills to a woman in Texas, while Louisiana has indicted the same doctor for allegedly mailing a pill to that state. Access to the common abortion drug mifepristone is also under assault. Martin Makary, the FDA commissioner, and Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, have called for a 'review' of mifepristone, which is typically used in telehealth abortions – and which has been deemed safe by more than 100 studies conducted across dozens of countries. Kennedy specifically cited the results of a flawed analysis pushed by anti-abortion groups that claimed the complication rates from taking mifepristone are higher than previously known. 'Clearly, it indicates that, at very least, the label should be changed,' Kennedy told the Missouri senator Josh Hawley, a Republican, during a congressional hearing. For now, however, Foster remains optimistic about the future of her work. 'There will be a point where growth stops. There's a finite number of people who have an abortion each year,' Foster said. 'But I do think within our practice and within the shield law space we are anticipating that there will continue to be growth in demand.'
Yahoo
24-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Abortions continued rising in 2024 despite state bans: Report
More women were able to access abortion care in 2024 than the previous year despite state bans, reflecting a continued increase in the three years since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, according to a report issued Monday. The latest report from the #WeCount project of the Society of Family Planning, which supports abortion access, found there were about 1.14 million abortions provided by licensed clinicians across the U.S. in 2024, compared with 1.06 million in 2023. The report was released a day before the third anniversary of the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision ended the nearly 50-year constitutional right to an abortion. #WeCount began after Roe was overturned and has been tracking abortions since 2022. However, the 2022 numbers don't include January through March, when abortions are traditionally at their highest. In-person care at brick-and-mortar clinics represented the majority of abortion care, even though the number of abortions has fallen to near zero in states that enforce bans. The number of abortions using medication prescribed and delivered through telehealth has continued to increase since April 2022 and now makes up 1 in 4 procedures. Prior to the Dobbs ruling, about 1 in 20 abortions were accessed through telehealth. About half of the telehealth abortions last year were facilitated by the shield laws in some Democratic-controlled states. Shield laws protect medical providers and others from out-of-state investigations and prosecutions regarding abortions and gender-affirming care. An average of 12,330 abortions per month were provided under shield laws by the end of 2024, the report found. The report's findings show abortion bans haven't stopped people from seeking care, Alison Norris, #WeCount co-chair and professor at Ohio State University's College of Public Health, said in a statement. 'As care shifts across state lines and into telehealth care, what's emerging is a deeply fragmented system where access depends on where you live, how much money you have, and whether you can overcome barriers to care,' Norris said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
NDTV
24-06-2025
- Health
- NDTV
Abortions In US Rose In 2024 Due To Telehealth Prescriptions: Report
The number of abortions in the US rose again in 2024, with women continuing to find ways to get them despite bans and restrictions in many states, according to a report out Monday. The latest report from the WeCount project of the Society of Family Planning, which supports abortion access, was released a day before the third anniversary of the US Supreme Court's ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and ended nearly 50 years of legal abortion nationally for most of pregnancy. Currently, 12 states are enforcing bans on abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with limited exceptions, and four have bans that kick in at or about six weeks into pregnancy - often before women realize they are pregnant. While the total number of abortions has risen gradually over those three years, the number has dropped to near zero in some states, while abortions using pills obtained through telehealth appointments have become more common in nearly all states. Pills are used in the majority of abortions and are also prescribed in person. The overall number of abortions has risen, but it is below historic highs The latest survey, released Monday, tallied about 1.1 million abortions nationally last year, or about 95,000 a month. That is up from about 88,000 monthly in 2023 and 80,000 a month between April and December of 2022. WeCount began after Roe was overturned, and the 2022 numbers don't include January through March, when abortions are traditionally at their highest. The number is still well below the historic peak in the US of nearly 1.6 million a year in the late 1990s. The Society of Family Planning relies primarily on surveys of abortion providers and uses estimates. Pills prescribed by telehealth now account for one-fourth of US abortions WeCount found that in the months before the Dobbs ruling was handed down, about 1 in 20 abortions was accessed by telehealth. But during the last three months of 2024, it was up to 1 in 4. The biggest jump over that time came in the middle of 2023, when laws in some Democratic-controlled states took effect with provisions intended to protect medical professionals who use telehealth to prescribe pills to patients in states where abortion is banned or where there are laws restricting telehealth abortion. WeCount found that about half of the telehealth abortions last year were facilitated by the shield laws. The number of telehealth abortions also grew for those in states without bans. WeCount is the only nationwide public source of information about the pills prescribed to women in states with bans. One key caveat is that it is not clear how many of the prescriptions result in abortion. Some women may change their minds, access in-person abortion or be seeking pills to save for future use. The WeCount data could help explain data from a separate survey from the Guttmacher Institute, which found the number of people crossing state lines for abortion declined last year. Anti-abortion efforts are focused on pills Anti-abortion efforts are zeroing in on pills, along with barring federal funds for Planned Parenthood and undoing ballot measures that provided for abortion access. Three states have sued to try to get courts to limit telehealth prescriptions of mifepristone, one of the two drugs usually used in combination for medication abortions. President Donald Trump's administration last month told a judge it does not believe the states have legal standing to make that case. The US Supreme Court last year found that anti-abortion doctors and their organizations didn't have standing, either. Meanwhile, officials in Louisiana are using criminal laws, and there is an effort in Texas to use civil penalties against a New York doctor accused of prescribing abortion pills to women in their states. Louisiana lawmakers have also sent the governor a bill to further restrict access to the pills. SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said on a call with reporters Monday that it's a priority for her group to keep pushing US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other officials to investigate the safety of abortion pills - and to require that they be dispensed only in person.
Washington Post
23-06-2025
- Health
- Washington Post
Telehealth and shield laws aided abortion rise last year, report says
The number of abortions in the United States grew to 1.14 million last year — driven in part by access to abortion pills via telemedicine, a new report says. By the end of 2024, a quarter of abortions were provided through telehealth, which allows clinicians to remotely prescribe and dispense abortion pills to patients, according to the report. The study was released Monday by #WeCount, a project at the Society of Family Planning, which tracks reproductive care and support abortion rights.
