Report: Telehealth used in about 16% of US abortions

Telehealth-assisted abortions have become a popular way for people to access the procedure in the 15 months since the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade reversal triggered a wave of state-level abortion restrictions, a new report found.

About 14,000 people each month opted for telehealth abortions—in which providers counsel patients via telephone, video, or messaging and send abortion-inducing medications through the mail—in July, August, and September 2023, according to the Society of Family Planning #WeCount report released Wednesday. That number accounts for about 16% (or one in six) of the 88,000+ monthly abortions that occurred nationwide with clinician oversight at the end of that period.

The Society of Family Planning, which has been tracking abortion rates and trends following the Supreme Court’s June 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling, noted that the report is its first to offer a more comprehensive look at US telehealth abortions—an option that became popular during the Covid-19 pandemic and one that was expected to see increased use as more states restricted access to the procedure.

Researchers wrote in an October 2023 #WeCount report that abortions provided via virtual-only clinics increased from an average of about 4,000 per month prior to Dobbs to nearly 7,000 per month in the year following the ruling.

The latest findings come as the Supreme Court prepares to hear a case that could upend access to mifepristone, one of two drugs used in more than half of US abortions. Reproductive rights are expected to remain a hot political topic heading into the 2024 elections as courts weigh in on not just medication abortion access but also new legal challenges affecting in vitro fertilization.

Ushma Upadhyay, a #WeCount co-chair and professor at the University of California, San Francisco’s Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health, told reporters on a Wednesday conference call that “telehealth is playing an ever more critical role in the abortion landscape.”

The new data—which was not part of previous #WeCount reports—includes telehealth abortions provided through brick-and-mortar clinics and those in which providers in five states with laws that aim to “shield” patients in abortion-restricted states from legal repercussions (Colorado, Massachusetts, New York, Vermont, and Washington) assisted in a telehealth abortion.

The number of monthly abortions provided nationwide between July and September 2023—between 81,150 and 88,620—remained relatively on par with rates reported in the year since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling. Still, an estimated 100,000+ fewer clinician-provided abortions took place in the 15 months after states began limiting access to the procedure, the report noted.