The use of abortion pills by women on their own skyrocketed in the months immediately following the Supreme Court’s June 2022 ruling that overturned the Roe v. Wade decision, according to research published Monday in JAMA.

The total number of doses of medications for self-managed abortion outside of a formal healthcare setting increased by nearly 28,000 in July-December 2022 after the high court returned the abortion issue to the states in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, according to research findings published by JAMA.

“The numbers we’re looking at seem to suggest that [self-managed abortion] is more mainstream than perhaps we thought,” said Abigail Aiken, University of Texas professor and the lead author of the study, The Washington Post reported.

“This is something people are doing on a larger scale.”

Roe v. Wade, until being overturned, had legalized abortion nationwide.

Other studies have estimated that approximately 32,000 fewer abortions occurred at licensed facilities and telehealth clinics in the six months following the fall of Roe, the Post said.

Earlier this month, abortion rights advocacy group Guttmacher Institute said the proportion of U.S. abortions administered by medication rose to more than 60% in 2023.

The Guttmacher survey found more than 1 million total abortions overall were provided through the U.S. healthcare system in 2023, the first time that number exceeded a million since 2012.

The Supreme Court in December agreed to hear a bid by President Joe Biden’s administration to preserve broad access to the abortion pill, setting up another major ruling on reproductive rights set to come in a presidential election year.

The justices took up the administration’s appeal of an August decision by the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that would curb how the pill, called mifepristone, is delivered and distributed, barring telemedicine prescriptions and shipments by mail of the drug. The high court also agreed to hear an appeal by the drug’s manufacturer, Danco Laboratories.

Arguments are scheduled to begin Tuesday, the Post reported.

At least 16 states implemented abortion bans or 6-week gestational limits since Roe v. Wade was overturned, JAMA said.

Abortion pills have become easier to get since the immediate aftermath of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, the Post reported.

Reuters contributed to this story.

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