Latest news with #IsabelDoCampo
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Virginia sees spike in abortions due to influx of out-of-state patients
Virginia was among the states that saw a substantial increase last year in the number of abortions provided. That's according to a new report from the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that advocates for access to reproductive care including abortion. The increase is likely due to an influx in patients from states with new or more restrictive abortion bans. Virginia saw 5,500 more clinician-provided abortions in 2024 than the year before, a 16% increase. That's an outlier compared to the national trend, where there was just a 0.4% increase in states without total bans. 'There was an 86% increase in the number of patients traveling from out of state to Virginia for abortion care between 2023 and 2024, and we think that the Florida ban is likely playing a big role here,' said Guttmacher senior research associate Isabel DoCampo . Most states without total abortion bans saw small changes to the number of abortions performed between 2023 and 2024. Arizona, California, Kansas, Ohio and Virginia, states that did not change their abortion legislation in the past two years, saw substantial increases. Virginia saw the most significant increase, outpaced nationwide only by Wisconsin, which restored abortion services in the latter half of 2023. Whooping cough cases are rising again in the US, challenging public health departments Worries about flying seem to be taking off. Here's how to cope with in-flight anxiety Measles misinformation is on the rise — and Americans are hearing it, survey finds States that enshrined Medicaid expansion in their constitutions could be in a bind What is listeria? Things to know about the bacteria and how to prevent infection. Virginia is the last state in the Southeast without a ban on abortions after six or 12 weeks of pregnancy — Florida, which previously allowed abortions up to 15 weeks, enacted a six-week ban that took effect May 1, 2024. 'Virginia is the second-closest state for Florida patients to access abortion, and it's the closest place without a waiting period to access abortion,' DoCampo said. 'It's also likely that people in the Southeast who would have traveled for care to Florida are now going to Virginia instead.' That maps with findings from the Virginia League for Planned Parenthood, which operates clinics in Virginia Beach, Hampton and Richmond. 'Before the Dobbs decision in 2022, the amount of out-of-state patients was 2 to 3% of our entire patient population,' said Planned Parenthood spokesperson Rae Pickett, referencing the Supreme Court decision that stripped away the nation's constitutional protections for abortion . 'After the Dobbs decision, that increased very quickly to 15%. So that was a very large jump. Then, after the six-week abortion ban went into effect in Florida, our numbers went from 15 to 25 to 30% and have stayed there for that period of time.' Virginia permits abortions during the first and second trimester, or during the third trimester if three physicians agree the pregnancy will lead to the woman's death or substantially harm her health. VLPP increased same-day and telehealth appointment availability in anticipation of the Florida, as well as the use of patient navigators, who help patients coordinate travel. The Planned Parenthood affiliate operates a virtual clinic via telehealth, but people seeking an abortion pill for up to 11 weeks after their last period must be physically located in Virginia at the time of their appointment, and the medication is mailed to a Virginia address. 'I think the Virginia case shows us that an abortion ban in one place has a dramatic impact on the abortion care infrastructure in other parts of the country,' DoCampo said. The Virginia Society for Human Life, an anti-abortion advocacy group, described the report as tragic. 'The new numbers suggest a deeply alarming trend,' said Olivia Gans Turner, president of VSHL, in a statement. Virginia's constitution does not expressly prohibit or protect abortion. That could change: the General Assembly voted this session along party lines to advance a constitutional amendment that would enshrine a right to abortion in the state constitution. If the legislature passes that same resolution next year, the amendment will appear on the ballot for public referendum in 2026. The state constitutional amendment process excludes input from the governor, but both the Republican and Democrat candidates for governor have taken positions on the issue. Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle Sears, the Republican nominee, spoke at Virginia's March for Life earlier this month. 'All those who are for abortion are already born,' she said. 'We stand for life, and how can it ever be wrong to stand for life?' Former U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger previously voted in Congress in favor of codifying the abortion protections offered in Roe v. Wade. 'Virginia is the last bastion in the South when it comes to protecting reproductive freedom — and the consequences of this reality on women and families are clear,' she said in a statement. 'In the aftermath of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, families across the Commonwealth continue to worry that extreme politicians and judges will rip away their right to privacy, jeopardize their safety, and leave their families without access to medical care.' Kate Seltzer, (757)713-7881
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Medication Abortion Is Still the Most Common Type
An abortion rights activist holds a box of mifepristone during a rally in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on March 26, 2024, in Washington, D.C. Credit - Drew Angerer—AFP/Getty Image New data reveal that the majority of abortions that were provided in most states in 2023 were medication abortions—a pattern that reproductive health experts say underscores the need to protect access to abortion pills. The Guttmacher Institute, which researches and supports sexual and reproductive health and rights, released on Feb. 27 an analysis of state-level data on medication abortion in 2023. Guttmacher researchers had previously found that medication abortions accounted for 63% of all abortions provided by clinicians in 2023 in states without the most restrictive policies—most states, in other words—and the data released on Thursday expanded on that finding by breaking that number down by state. A full 95% of abortions performed in Wyoming were medication abortions, and 84% of abortions in Montana were. Lowest were Washington, D.C., at 44%, and Ohio, at 46%, according to the report. Researchers also looked at how women were receiving medication abortion: whether through prescriptions from in-person clinics or via telemedicine. In states without near-total abortion bans or bans on telemedicine provision, about 10% of abortions in 2023 were provided by online-only clinics, ranging from 7% in states like New York and California to as high as 60% in Wyoming. 'What these data are telling us is that medication abortion is a critical option for folks in most states without total abortion bans, and we're also seeing that in some states, telemedicine is playing a pretty major role,' says Isabel DoCampo, senior research associate at the Guttmacher Institute and one of the lead authors of the analysis. 'What this communicates is that lawmakers shouldn't support efforts to curtail medication abortion or telemedicine access for medication abortion, and that these options need to be expanded. Medication abortion is an option with high demand, with high need in most states without total abortion bans, and access to medication abortion via any means shouldn't be restricted.' The two-drug regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol is the most common medication abortion method that U.S. providers offer. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved mifepristone to be used for abortions more than 20 years ago, and years of research have found the drug to be both safe and effective. But recently, mifepristone has faced attacks from anti-abortion activists and some politicians, including through court challenges. Read More: How the Biden Administration Protected Abortion Pill Access—and What Trump Could Do Next The analysis published on Thursday is part of the Guttmacher Institute's Monthly Abortion Provision Study, an ongoing project that shares monthly estimates of abortions provided by clinicians in states without near-total bans. Researchers survey providers and use a statistical model to estimate data. The project started when the Guttmacher Institute saw a 'need for more frequent data collection and more frequent reporting' in an era of quickly changing policies on abortion, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, DoCampo says. The research team focused on abortions provided at both brick-and-mortar facilities and online-only providers in states that didn't have near-total abortion bans in 2023. DoCampo says one of the reasons the team decided not to include states with near-total bans was to protect providers' confidentiality. Some abortion shield laws offer protections for providers prescribing abortion pills via telemedicine and sending them to patients in states with bans or restrictions, but New York's law is currently being tested through two legal challenges in Louisiana and Texas. Read More: What Are Abortion Shield Laws? Because the team didn't include data from states with near-total bans or include self-managed abortions, DoCampo says, 'If we're thinking about all abortions occurring in the U.S., our numbers reflecting medication abortion provision are likely an undercount, and medication abortion likely plays an even greater role in the U.S. abortion access landscape.' The data also show that even states that have many different characteristics have similar proportions of medication abortion provision. For instance, Wyoming is a rural state with low population density and, at the time, it had a near-total ban on abortion and a first-of-its-kind ban on medication abortion. (Wyoming's abortion bans were later blocked.) Delaware, meanwhile, has a higher population density and protective abortion policies. But in both states, medication abortion accounts for a high proportion of abortions. 'It's likely that there's a constellation of factors at the state level' influencing the proportion of medication abortion, DoCampo says, such as abortion policies, insurance reimbursement rates for medication vs. procedural abortion, and the number of clinics operating in the state. Ushma Upadhyay—a professor in the department of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the University of California, San Francisco and a member of the university's Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health program—was not affiliated with the Guttmacher Institute's research and says she was 'delighted' to see this data breakdown by state. With so much variation in factors like abortion policy and insurance coverage, which all impact abortion access and preferences, this type of data is 'incredibly valuable,' she says. 'These rates show that restrictions are ineffective; when it comes to abortion, people are going to do what they need to to access abortion care,' Upadhyay says. 'I think that this is exactly why anti-abortion activists are coming after medication abortion—they can see that people are able to access it, there's more and more research that it is safe and effective, [and] patients enjoy the level of autonomy that it provides them.' Upadhyay says she thought the team's methodology was 'very strong.' But she wishes the report discussed in greater detail the role that insurance plays in this area, and agrees that the data were likely undercounting the prevalence of medication abortion because states with near-total abortion bans weren't included in the analysis. Some of the states the Guttmacher team looked at have abortion restrictions, such as Georgia, Florida, and Iowa, which all ban abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy. Upadhyay notes that some of those states had high proportions of medication abortion, including Georgia at 83%. 'That is a perfect illustration of the power that medication abortion has; it's across the country,' she says. 'People are accessing it more and more, and they're able to use it despite the increasing number of restrictions in states.' Contact us at letters@
