How access to birth control medications is impacted by physical distance to abortion clinics
Jan 9, 2025, 3:02 PM
Three RU-486 Mifeprex abortion pills are held in a hand. (Photo courtesy of Bill Grenblatt/Liaison)
(Photo courtesy of Bill Grenblatt/Liaison)
The further away a person lives from an abortion facility, the more likely they depend on the pills being mailed to them, Dr. Emily Godfrey, a UW Medicine OB-GYN and family medicine physician, said.
Godfrey was the co-author of a study published this week in the American Journal of Public Health and provided by UW News. Authors noted patients accessing telehealth to obtain medication abortions now constitute 20% of all U.S. abortions.
The study concluded the distance between a patient’s home and an abortion services facility where they would seek care significantly influences how they receive birth-control medications.
Related news: Abortions are up in the US. It’s a complicated picture as women turn to pills, travel
The research began at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic when receiving abortion medication via telehealth and through the mail was novel, Godfrey said. Over the study span and beyond, “there was exponential growth” of patients opting to receive their pills via telehealth and the mail, she explained.
The research took place between 2020 and 2022, during which the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion.
The investigators acquired medical record data from Aid Access users in 21 states and Washington, D.C. Aid Access is a nonprofit that works with clinics that provide patients with FDA-approved abortion pills.
The researchers tallied telehealth requests for abortion medication from more than 8,000 people.
Related news: In states that ban abortion, social safety net programs often fail families
“With abortion now banned or highly restricted in 22 U.S. states, telehealth abortion services are necessary to maintain essential reproductive health services,” the authors concluded.
The study found that people living in lower socioeconomic conditions had a higher likelihood of seeking medication abortion via telehealth compared to persons living in higher socioeconomic situations.
Most people who got abortion pills via telehealth were 20-29 years old, did not have children and were at less than 6 weeks gestation. More than half of the total fulfilled requests went to individuals in four states: California (21%), New York (17%), Nevada (10%) and New Jersey (10%).
“This study gives us an idea of the sheer volume of patients using these services,” Anna Fiastro, a UW Medicine researcher in family medicine and co-lead author of the paper, said.
Bill Kaczaraba is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here. Follow Bill on X and email him here.
