Demand for Self-Managed Online Telemedicine Abortion in the United States During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic

For many in the United States, abortion care is already difficult to access, and the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has created yet more potential barriers—including infection risk at clinics and state policies limiting in-clinic services. The severity of these state policies varies, but, in the most extreme case, Texas effectively suspended all abortions for approximately four weeks. As a result, people may increasingly be seeking self-managed abortion outside the formal health care system.

Using data from Aid Access, the sole online abortion telemedicine service in the United States, we assessed whether demand for self-managed medication abortion increased as in-clinic access became more challenging.