The number of abortions has risen since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, according to a report by the Society of Family Planning, an abortion rights organization.
The Supreme Court returned the issue of abortion to the states in June 2022, and the #WeCount report shows the number of abortions in 2024 has been higher than in 2023 and 2022.
"In the three most recent months of data collection, January 2024 to March 2024, we observed between 94,670 and 102,350 abortions per month," the Society for Family Planning stated.
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This was the first time since the overturning of Roe that the organization has documented more than 100,000 abortions in a single month.
More than a dozen states have abortion bans on the books. While abortions have declined considerably in those states, the report notes that there were increases in some neighboring states.
“While the volume of abortions has increased, we know that this isn’t the full story,” said Alison Norris, MD, PhD, #WeCount co-chair and professor at The Ohio State University’s College of Public Health and co-principal investigator of the Ohio Policy Evaluation Network.
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The organization, which states it gets its data from abortion providers, notes that telehealth visits for abortion pills have increased, making up 20% of all abortions in the country.
“Telehealth abortion is making a critical difference for people seeking abortion care in this increasingly restrictive environment,” said Dr. Ushma Upadhyay, #WeCount co-chair and professor at the University of California, San Francisco’s Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health.
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court allowed the abortion drug mifepristone to remain widely available in the U.S.
Opponents wanted the Supreme Court to roll back changes made by the Food and Drug Administration that made it easier to obtain the drug. However, the Supreme Court said in its unanimous decision that the plaintiffs "lacked standing" to challenge the FDA's actions.
