May 5, 2022 --A growing number of people are contacting Aid Access, a telehealth service that helps U.S. women obtain abortion pills, apparently in response to reports the U.S. Supreme Court may overturn Roe v. Wade.

Christie Pitney of Forward Midwifery, a Washington D.C. telehealth practice that works with Aid Access, told Reuters the Aid Access website had 38,530 visitors asking for prescriptions or information on Tuesday, compared to only 1,290 visitors on Monday. She called the increase "insanely higher numbers.”

The surge in interest came immediately after the publication on Monday of a leaked draft opinion from the Supreme Court saying a majority of justices think Roe v. Wade should be reversed. If that happens, the decision about whether to allow abortion would be left up to the individual states.

Abortion pills are considered a way around state restrictions because patients don’t have to go to a clinic. They can have a telehealth consultation at home and receive the pills through the mail.

Twenty U.S. states allow abortion bills to be prescribed after a patient has a telehealth conference with Austria-based Aid Access or an affiliated practice, Reuters said. Prescribers such as Pitney then order the prescription through a local pharmacy.

Reuters said Aid Access is trying to add providers in four more states. Of the remaining states, 19 ban or restrict using telehealth to prescribe abortion pills. Reuters said Aid Access gets around these restrictions by working with European doctors who prescribe abortion pills via a mail-order pharmacy in India, Reuters said.

The pills are manufactured by GenBioPro and Danco Laboratories for the U.S. market, Reuters said.

"I have talked to a number of clinicians who are stocking up (on the pills) to make sure that they have access to it," Pitney said.

The Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights, said in February that 54% of all U.S. abortions were done with medication in 2020. That’s the first time medication abortions comprised more than half of all U.S. abortions.

Reuters. “Abortion pill provider sees spike in U.S. interest after SCOTUS leak”

The Guttmacher Institute. “Medication Abortion Now Accounts for More Than Half of All US Abortions”

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