Abortions increasing in US despite bans, study finds

By AFP
August 08, 2024
A woman looks at her ultrasound before proceeding with a medical abortion at Alamo Womens Clinic in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S. on August 23, 2022. — Reuters
A woman looks at her ultrasound before proceeding with a medical abortion at Alamo Women's Clinic in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S. on August 23, 2022. — Reuters 

WASHINGTON: The number of abortions in the United States has actually grown since the Supreme Court allowed states to enact strict bans on the procedure, according to a study released on Wednesday.

Survey results reported by the Society of Family Planning (SFP), which advocates for abortion access, showed a monthly average of 98,990 for the first quarter of 2024, a increase above 2022 and 2023 figures. The group attributed a significant part of the rise to broader access to abortion pills through online telehealth services. It said the proportion of abortions nationwide occurring via telehealth had increased from four to 20 percent nationwide since April 2022.

The conservative-dominated US Supreme Court overturned the nationwide right to abortions in June 2022, with many Republican-led states quickly moving to restrict or outright ban the procedure.

Even excluding abortions provided under shield laws, “we still observe more abortions per month in January-March 2024 (monthly average of 89,770 abortions) as compared to the same period January-March 2023 (monthly average of 86,967 abortions),” SFP said in its #WeCount report.­