'Changes to an abortion pill could lead to an impact 'bigger than Dobbs'

 A surge in telemedicine helped to lessen at least some of the impacts of the Supreme Court's 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and remove a constitutional right to abortion.

But the effects could be more widely felt, some economists and healthcare experts say, if an upcoming high court debate about a mail-order abortion pill results in greater restrictions in the years ahead.

The issue will be front and center for many Americans in the coming days as the Supreme Court hears a case that could change access to Danco Laboratories’ mifepristone — the commonly used medication that can be ordered in some places without an in-person clinic visit.

The pill allows a person to end a pregnancy in its early stages.

"I am not sure that the general public really understands that the mifepristone case could be bigger than Dobbs," Middlebury College economist Caitlin Myers says, referring to the landmark 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.

"There are potential future worlds in which this case reduces abortion access far more," she added in a recent interview.

Oral arguments are set for Tuesday, with a decision possible by this summer.

Mifepristone is medication typically used in combination with misoprostol to bring about a medical abortion during pregnancy. (NurPhoto via Getty Images)

To make things even more complex, a parallel debate in the US around in vitro fertilization (IVF) could have yet another set of economic effects — with a different universe of Americans potentially being impacted — if policy changes are considered on that front either in Washington or at the state level.

Mifepristone is part of a decades-long trend toward telemedicine that was spurred in recent years by the COVID-19 pandemic but then turbocharged in the reproductive health space by the Dobbs decision.

The Supreme Court's ruling has led to abortion bans in more than a dozen states. Thousands of residents in those states responded by traveling for these services while also relying more directly on telemedicine.

Medication abortion accounted for 63% of all abortions in the US healthcare system in 2023, up from 53% in 2020, according to new data from the Guttmacher Institute released last week. Tellingly, the sharpest increases were in states that bordered areas where abortion is now banned.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/how-changes-to-an-abortion-pill-could-lead-to-an-impact-bigger-than-dobbs-140035683.html