Medication abortion now makes up the majority of US abortions, study shows for the first time

More than half of US abortions in 2020 were conducted using medication, according to new data assembled by a reproductive rights think tank that marked a notable inflection point in the method’s growing popularity amid new efforts to limit access to the pills.

Use of medication abortion, in which patients use a two-pill regime to end their pregnancies, has been increasing steadily since the method was approved in 2000. However, the Covid-19 pandemic – and how it made patients more comfortable with telehealth while a facilitating a loosening of federal regulations around the pills’ use – may have increased the method’s prevalence.

As medication abortion has