Dr. Grace Ferguson, an OB-GYN and abortion provider in Pittsburgh who isn’t involved with the research, said the COVID-19 pandemic and the overturning of Roe v. Wade“really opened the doors” for medication abortions done through telehealth.

Ferguson said “telehealth was a really good way of accommodating that increased volume” in states where abortion remained legal and saw an increase in people who traveled from more restrictive states.

Guttmacher data shows that medication abortions have risen steadily since mifepristone was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2000. The drug, which blocks the hormone progesterone, also primes the uterus to respond to the contraction-causing effect of another drug, misoprostol. The two-drug regimen is used to end a pregnancy through 10 weeks gestation.

The case in front of the Supreme Court could cut off access to mifepristone by mailand impose other restrictions, even in states where abortion remains legal.

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