Study finds U.S. requests for abortion pills from overseas have skyrocketed in recent months

A new study published this week showed a sharp increase in request from US-based customers for mailed abortion pills from overseas providers since the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade earlier this year and more American states banned or severely restricted access to abortion. 

The study, published on Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, showed that requests from the United States for abortion pills from the Austria-based medicine-by-mail nonprofit Aid Access spiked significantly after the leaked draft opinion on Dobbs v Jackson signaled the intent of SCOTUS to overturn Roe.

The study found requests before the draft opinion leaked averaged about 83 requests a day from the United States. Once the opinion leaked, requests from the US spiked to 137 a day, and when SCOTUS officially ruled on Dobbs in June, requests shot up to about 214 every day.

When customers request the abortion pills from Aid Access, they are asked to provide at least one reason they need the medication.

The study showed many of the US requests – especially from the 30 states that have enacted or tightened anti-abortion laws since June – cited rapidly changing reproductive rights in the USA as the reason they were seeking the pills from elsewhere.

In fact, the number of people citing “current abortion restrictions” more than doubled after the May SCOTUS leak, from 31 percent to 62 percent, according to the study.

Heading into next week’s midterms, a Quinnipiac poll shows US voters rank abortion as their second highest concern, behind inflation.