Medication abortion accounts for more than half of all abortions in the U.S., and typically involves two drugs: mifepristone and misoprostol. A research letter published Tuesday in JAMA Internal Medicine looked at requests for these pills from people who weren’t pregnant and sought them through Aid Access, a European online telemedicine service that prescribes them for future and immediate use.
Aid Access received about 48,400 requests from across the U.S. for so-called “advance provision” from September 2021 through April 2023. Requests were highest right after news leaked in May 2022 that the Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade — but before the formal announcement that June, researchers found.
Nationally, the average number of daily requests shot up nearly tenfold, from about 25 in the eight months before the leak to 247 after the leak. In states where an abortion ban was inevitable, the average weekly request rate rose nearly ninefold.
You don’t fucking say.
Men can’t truly understand how terrifying it is to be pregnant and unable to stop it. Even healthy pregnancies often result in long-term damage (Google it, I get freaked out even thinking about it), which is something that I’m convinced is intentionally hidden from women so that they won’t decide not to have children because the effects can so often be horrible. The worst thing is that other women hide it and then when their friends finally experience it after them, they open up about it. Talk about just wanting others to suffer like you did.
Imagine having to go through all that for a child you wanted to abort. Imagine all of the stereotypes you’re familiar with about pregnancy such as your abdomen painfully swelling, losing bladder control, feeling movement inside of your belly, getting nauseous and vomiting, getting inconvenient cravings, screaming in pain through labor. Then imagine the other fairly common outcomes which are hidden, such as : the flesh around your anus splitting open; becoming incontinent; developing hemorrhoids; the muscles in your abdomen splitting apart down the center; postpartum depression; your feet swelling up so large that you can’t even wear shoes. It goes on and on and it’s hidden from you until you experience it.
Not to mention that this is all in a country where healthcare coverage can end when the insurance company feels like and they can say they “cover” something but only pay $10 towards a $700 bill until you meet the deductible, medications not included. For those that decide to have a child with insurance, appointments can cost hundreds per appointment. You can to buy new clothes constantly what you may never wear again. You have to sit on the phone for hours hoping you are not hung up on to talk to insurance figuring out why something wasn’t covered when you triple checked it was. You have to buy prenatal medication and also things for each of the symptoms, sometimes multiple things for each symptom.
Discomfort/pain/anxiety/depression/things you already didn’t have time for and now have less time for aside, it’s EXPENSIVE to even try and be sort of comfortable. Expensive in both time and also money.
I had an extremely drama free pregnancy and I’m still healing 6 weeks later. The hemorrhoids in particular fucking suck because it’s painful for hours afterwards every time I poop, even with taking stool softener. I have an extremely generous maternity leave policy and I work a desk job so I’m able to take plenty of time to fully recover. I can’t even imagine how a warehouse or retail worker is able to manage, and their leave policy probably isn’t nearly as generous either.
Okay but a bunch of old guys probably know what to do best right? Why don’t we just let the government lead the way? Maybe they can tell us what people are most worthy of being parents too. They got the best answers so far. Specially the supremes. Good thing we don’t actually vote for a president, an electoral college does…uh a college? Nah, it’s just a bunch of random people who are picked based on their vote…“hey I’m gonna pick Trump!..oh pick that guy over there! He’s gonna vote Trump!”
