Hundreds of thousands of Texas women may have attempted to self-induce abortions, according to by . The study, which estimates between 100,000 and 240,000 women have attempted self-induction, also indicates that these rates of self-induction may be higher in Texas than in other U.S. states.
Researchers attribute increasing numbers of self-induced abortions to a variety of factors, primarily to legislation that restricts access to clinical abortions and to the availability of abortion-inducing medications across the U.S.-Mexico border.
Twenty-two percent of the female survey respondents said that either they or someone they know has terminated or attempted to terminate a pregnancy on their own outside of a clinical care setting.
Rates were highest for women in Texas who identify as Latina and live near the border.
Self-induced abortion by medication was the most commonly reported method among respondents. Other methods reported include: the use of herbs or alternative medicine; use of alcohol or illicit drugs; getting hit or punched in the abdomen; and the use of hormonal pills.
The results of the study come just after an announcement from the U.S. Supreme Court that it would take on a case challenging , which would apply stricter standards to women鈥檚 health clinics that provide abortion services and leave Texas with just nine abortion providers statewide.
Dr. Daniel Grossman, a TxPEP co-investigator and Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, said in a press release that the more restrictive law may drive more women to look for options outside of clinical care settings.
鈥淎s clinic-based care becomes harder to access in Texas, we can expect more women to feel that they have no other option and take matters into their own hands,鈥� Grossman said.
Thirty-four percent of women surveyed (out of 779 total) said they didn鈥檛 support abortion, but could understand why a woman would make the decision to try to end a pregnancy on her own.
