Texas Abortion Ban Could Be Leading Women To End Their Own Pregnancies (2024)

It's been two years since the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision ended longstanding federal protections for abortion access. As a result, a growing number of women are taking their abortions into their own hands, a recently published study found. In states where abortion bans are most restrictive, such as Texas, the number of women attempting to end their own pregnancies could be even higher, researchers believe.

The study, published in the research journal JAMA Network Open, found that in the year before and year after Roe v. Wade was repealed, the number of women who attempted to end their own pregnancies rose from 2.3% to 3.3%. Although the number may seem incremental, it could account for hundreds of thousands of women performing their own healthcare, researchers say.

And the estimate is likely a conservative one. Researchers asked 7,000 women about their pregnancy care in 2021, and another 7,000 were polled in 2023, but abortions are often underreported to a significant degree.

“Assuming people underreport [self-managed abortions] to the same degree they do past-year, facility-based abortion, the proportion with [self-managed abortion] experience increased from approximately 5% before Dobbs to 7% after Dobbs," the study states.

Study participants admitted to taking herbs and contraceptive medication, drinking alcohol, inserting objects into their bodies and hitting themselves in the stomach in attempts to terminate their pregnancy. Planned Parenthood’s Greater Texas chapter was not involved in the study, but a spokesperson told the Observer that the findings “seem to confirm” what reproductive rights advocates have been warning about for years.

“We know that abortion bans force people, especially those who already experience barriers to healthcare and other essential resources, to seek options outside of their communities, states and the healthcare setting,” the spokesperson said.

One in five women reported experiencing a medical complication after their self-managed abortion attempt, although only a small portion sought medical care. Since the repeal of Roe v. Wade, the number of women who have sought medical care after attempting to end their pregnancy dropped from 7.1% to 4.7%, but that drop isn't necessarily surprising.

It’s all part of a lose-lose system that is causing women in states with restrictive laws to seek alternative healthcare, said Dr. Kari White, executive and scientific director of Resound Research for Reproductive Health. The research nonprofit studies the relationship between legislation and women's reproductive healthcare.

White told the Observer that since the Dobbs decision, requests for the abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol have been higher in Texas compared to states with fewer restrictions, indicating a rising number of women turning to medical care outside of the typical hospital systems.

“It’s important to note that even people living in states with fewer restrictions face barriers to in-person abortion care leading them to try to self-manage their abortion,” White added. “These [barriers] can include things like long travel distances to clinics, cost and stigma.”