SCOTUS Opinion Leak Caused Spike in Search for Abortion Drugs

July 1, 2022 – Word that the U.S. Supreme Court was on the verge of overturning Roe v. Wade led to a dramatic spike in internet searches for abortion medicines, a brand new examine exhibits.

On May 2, 2022, Politico leaked a draft majority opinion that exposed the court docket supposed to reverse the assured proper to decide on to have an abortion.

During the week of the leak, May 1 to May 8, Google recorded 350,000 web searches for abortion medicines, the best quantity for the reason that search firm started amassing knowledge in 2004, in accordance with the findings printed June 29 in JAMA Internal Medicine.

“While we can’t be 100% certain of the intent behind these searches, they might be that women are trying to find out how safe and effective these pills are or how to obtain these pills,” mentioned Adam Poliak, PhD, a professor of pc science at Bryn Mawr College, in Bryn Mawr, PA, and co-author of the examine. “People might be looking to stockpile these pills once abortion becomes illegal or they are looking for alternative methods.”

Poliak and his colleagues examined Google search developments mentioning “abortion pill” or abortion medicines together with mifepristone (Mifeprex) and misoprostol (Cytotec).

Reproductive rights legal guidelines differ broadly from state to state. This patchwork is constant after the court docket’s ruling final Friday to overturn Roe, with some states banning abortion outright and others severely proscribing it. Poliak’s group assigned every state a grade from A to F, based mostly on state restrictions.

Internet searches for abortion medicines have been extra frequent in states with decrease grades, or extra restrictions, together with Nebraska (F), Iowa (C), and Missouri (D), which all had the very best variety of searches that week, the researchers reported.

“Elevated interest in abortion medications should alert physicians that many of their patients may pursue this option with or without them,” Poliak and his colleagues wrote.

Medical abortions now account for greater than half of being pregnant terminations on this nation, in accordance with the Guttmacher Institute. A earlier examine printed in JAMA Network Open discovered that nearly 7% of U.S. girls between the ages of 18 and 49 have tried a self-managed abortion, together with consuming herbs and placing overseas objects into the uterus. Poliak and different consultants predict that the reversal of Roe might result in an increase in doubtlessly dangerous abortion makes an attempt. The court docket’s choice ought to put docs on excessive alert for the security of their sufferers, he mentioned.