(Oregon Right to Life) — Pro-life advocates nationwide are responding with concern and disappointment to a new report suggesting that abortions in the United States are increasing, rather than decreasing, following the landmark Dobbs v. Jackson decision that overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. The rise of chemical abortions is identified as a major factor in the increase.
The pro-abortion group Society of Family Planning released a report last week indicating that the first three months of 2024 saw a slight increase in the number of abortions compared to the same period last year. In addition, the group said January 2024 was the first month since the overturning of Roe v. Wade to record a number of abortions in excess of 100,000. Telehealth abortions reportedly accounted for an average of 20% of abortions nationwide.
That reported increase comes in spite of the fact that 14 states have passed legislation protecting unborn life throughout all stages of pregnancy, and 27 other states have laws limiting abortion based on gestational age.
Dr. Michael New, a political scientist and an associate scholar with the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute, responded to the report in an August 9 article published by National Review.
New said the new data is disturbing, particularly because of what it has to say about a growing trend in how abortions are performed: chemically.
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“This reported increase in telehealth abortions, especially telehealth abortions occurring under shield laws, should concern pro-lifers,” Dr. New wrote. In telehealth abortions, pregnant women attend virtual appointments with medical providers who prescribe abortion pills to be delivered via mail. Shield laws provide legal protections for out-of-state medical providers who prescribe abortion pills to women living in pro-life states.
“Telehealth abortions weaken the impact of many of the protective pro-life laws that have been enacted since the Dobbs decision,” New said.
Per the Society of Family Planning report, “the national monthly number of telehealth abortions in January-March 2024 is 28% higher than the national monthly number of telehealth abortions in January-March 2023.” Meanwhile, the monthly rate of in-person abortions during the same period was reportedly “about the same.”
While affirming that the numbers are alarming, New recommended pro-life advocates take the findings with a measure of caution.
“I have always advised pro-lifers to view with some skepticism the abortion estimates from the Society of Family Planning,” he said. “First, the Society of Family Planning had no experience estimating U.S. abortion figures prior to 2022. Second, there are some disparities between their state-level estimates and state estimates released by the Guttmacher Institute,” a prominent pro-abortion research and policy organization.
Dr. New also pointed out that companies that conduct telehealth appointments “may have incentives to inflate their numbers,” and “the fact that abortion pills were ordered does not necessarily mean that an abortion was obtained.”
“I think there’s reasons to be concerned, but I also don’t think there’s reasons for despair, either,” he told Family Research Council president Tony Perkins in a Washington Watch interview.
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Meanwhile, despite the troubling figures, the Society of Family Planning report did indicate that pro-life state laws have been successful in preventing in-person abortions within their borders.
The report noted that the 14 states that have passed laws protecting nearly all unborn babies “have experienced massive declines in the number of abortions provided by clinicians in-state.”
“We estimate that overall, if abortion had not been banned in these 14 states, approximately 208,040 abortions would have occurred in-person in these states in the 21 months since Dobbs,” the report reads. “This represents a national monthly average of 9,900 abortions that would have occurred in these 14 states.”
The reported rise of telehealth abortions throughout the country comes after the U.S. Supreme Court in June rejected a case brought by pro-life medical professionals who argued that the FDA had overstepped its authority by eliminating restrictions on mifepristone. The Court threw out the case on the basis that the plaintiffs lacked standing. The matter might come back before the Supreme Court in the future if brought by plaintiffs who can establish standing.
Many pro-life advocates recognize that the widespread distribution and use of abortion pills presents a new and significant challenge for protecting unborn life nationwide in the wake of the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
Chemical abortions currently account for over half of all abortions across the country.
