A survey released earlier this month by the abortion organization Society of Family Planning (SFP) showed that in the first three months of 2024 the United States faced a significant increase in the national number of abortions performed.
According to the survey, the monthly average of abortions performed in the first three months of this year in the country was 98,990, a number higher than the monthly average of 84,000 recorded in the two months before the end of Roe v. Wade, in 2022, when the American Supreme Court overturned the federal jurisprudence in the case and returned to the states the power to decide whether or not to ban the procedure. The current numbers also exceed the monthly average recorded in the first three months of 2023 (86,967).
This increase in the number of procedures, according to the survey, was driven by the increase in the number of abortions performed in states that still have permissive laws. Illinois, New Jersey, New York and California, where abortion is legal, were the states that contributed most to the increase in this monthly average, having registered the largest increases in the total number of abortions performed at the beginning of this year. California, governed by Democrat Gavin Newsom, led the monthly average of abortions performed, with 16,217.
In contrast, according to the report, the 14 US states that implemented total abortion bans (Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia and Wisconsin) saw a sharp drop in the number of procedures. According to the study, if the procedures had not been banned in these states, around 208,040 abortions could have been performed during the period analyzed.
The SFP survey also points to the growth in the use of abortion medications as a driving force behind the nationwide increase in the number of abortions. Currently, abortion pills can be obtained by American citizens in states where the procedure is legal, through a simple consultation with a doctor via telemedicine, without the need for a face-to-face meeting, as was previously the case.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), under the management of the Joe Biden administration, has been working to facilitate the population’s access to these medicines, even allowing them to be sent by mailshortly after the virtual consultation. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected appeals by pro-life groups to ban the use of Mifepristone, one of the abortion drugs used in more than 60% of procedures performed in the United States.
Before the repeal of Roe v. Wade, telemedicine consultations for medication abortions accounted for only 5% of procedures in the United States. However, according to the conservative American newspaper National Reviewthis percentage increased significantly to 20% of the total, driven by greater ease of access to the medicine – that Biden’s Justice Department allowed to be mailed even to states where abortion is banned. In 2023, abortions Drug-induced complications accounted for about 63% of the number of procedures performed in the USa significant increase since 2020, the newspaper reported.
Legalizing abortion in the US has been one of the main campaign flags of Vice President Kamala Harris, the current Democratic candidate for the US presidency.
Both Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, her running mate, have pledged to prioritize expanding access to the procedure in the United States if they win the White House in November. Walz, who is backed by the more progressive wing of the Democratic Party, has already signed legislation making abortion easier in Minnesota.
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