“I think back-alley abortions is not a term we use any more. Years of medical advancement has led to it being about access to medications for self-management of an abortion,” says Washington-based gynaecologist Dr Anuj Khattar.
Unlike half a century back in pre-Roe America, most pregnant Americans in post-Roe US will not be risking their lives in dark back lanes getting illegal abortions. Abortion and the legal war to clamp it has shifted online.
In 2020, 54 percent of all abortions in the US were done via medication – a less invasive and less expensive two-pill method (authorised by the FDA in 2000), for pregnancies up to 10 weeks – as per the Guttmacher Institute.
The sanction for telemedicine and the pandemic made it easier to access medical abortion, moving it into the world of video call consultations followed by postal pill deliveries.
Abortion via medication made it easier for women who found it difficult to travel to an abortion provider or preferred being able to terminate a pregnancy in their homes. But with Roe vs Wade no longer being the legal precedent, the decision about legality of abortions has returned to individual states.