Medication abortion has become the most common method of abortion provision in the US. According to stats from Guttmacher: “In 2023, medication abortion accounted for 63% of all clinician-provided abortions in states without total bans, up from 53% in 2020 and 39% in 2017”. Folks can receive their medications through traditional medical encounters via clinicians, Telehealth, or other online sources. When considering how many people may receive their pills online or through advance provision, the percentage of people using medications for abortion in the US is likely higher than 63%.
This week we talked to two experts about medication abortion for our episode “Meet the abortion pill revolution.”
The first was journalist and author Rebecca Kelliher, a feminist science journalist and writer. Her debut book, Just Pills: The Extraordinary Story of A Revolution in Abortion Care, was shortlisted for the J. Anthony Lukas Work-In-Progress Awards from Columbia University and Harvard University's Nieman Foundation for Journalism. She was a Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting fellow, and her writing has been in such publications as Slate.
Rebecca’s book is outstanding and takes the reader through the history of medication abortion, both mifepristone and misoprostol. The reclaiming of pills by the people who need them, creates opportunities for self-managed medication abortion (the safety of which is supported by a boatload of scientific evidence). On this week’s episode she recounts several of the impactful interviews from her book.
One of the folks Rebecca interviewed for her book was Elisa Wells, a Co-Founder and Co-Director of Plan C, an information resource for self-managed, at-home abortion with pills. We talked to Elisa during the second part of the episode about her work. She is a public health specialist with 30 years of experience in evaluation, training, strategic program development, and program management of family planning and reproductive health programs, both in the United States and abroad. Elisa tells us about her groundbreaking research and resource - PlanCpills.org - that connects the research she has conducted about the safety and efficacy of online pills. PlanC is more than just links to online pills - there’s a ton of information for patients who need it about self-managed abortion, legal support, and doula support.
Data from the Society of Family Planning’s WeCount study shows the impact of Telehealth abortion on the total numbers of people receiving care. Telehealth is making a tremendous impact on the ability of folks to receive the care they eed.
Abortion pills by mail has been a game changer for people cut off from care by abortion bans. We talk about Elisa’s research and how PlanCpills.org is filling in some of the gaps in care for folks in the US.
This week we welcomed Stevie Manning to the production team! Go, Stevie, go!
Interested in further conversation about medication abortion? You can also check out our episode with Dr. Daniel Grossman from UCSF. In that interview we talk about the science of medication abortion.
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