More women conducting own abortions after Dobbs, study says

The percentage of American women who report trying to self-induce an abortion rose from 2.4 to 3.4 percent in July 2023, according to the study. Researchers surveyed more than 14,000 women under the age of 50 during two survey periods at the end of 2021 and during the summer of 2023. The study, published Tuesday on JAMA Network Open by the American Medical Association, focused on women who killed their unborn babies without the supervision of a professional abortionist.

Have babies been saved since the decision? About 32,000 children were saved from abortion in the United States following the Dobbs decision, according to a report published in November 2023. In the first six months of 2023, births rose an average of 2.3 percent in states with laws that protect unborn babies compared to states that do not.

What else did the study report about at-home abortions? The use of herbs, emergency contraception, self-harm, and consuming alcohol or other substances were the most commonly reported methods for self-inducing an abortion. A smaller percentage of women said they used abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol. Half of the respondents said they used multiple methods to end their pregnancy and nearly one-fifth experienced a complication that required treatment by a physician or nurse.

Have there been other findings about abortion post-Dobbs? A report released in March by the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute found that there were more than one million babies killed by abortion in the United States in 2023. That is the highest rate reported in a decade and a 10 percent increase from 2020. Nearly two-thirds of those abortions were conducted by pills, according to the institute.

Dig deeper: Read Christina Grube’s report in The Sift about an Idaho appeals court blocking pro-life states from joining an abortion pill lawsuit.