With less than two months left until Donald Trump returns to the White House, interests in abortion medication has risen in the U.S., according to reports by the organizations that prescribe and supply abortion pills. This all coming at a time when women are bracing themselves for the uncertainty of abortion access during Trump’s second term.
The Washington Post reported that Aid Access, one of the major suppliers of abortion pills by mail in the U.S., revealed it received 10,000 requests the day after Trump’s win was called, in contrast to the 600-odd requests on a normal day.
Consequently, Wisp, a reproductive telehealth organization, saw a 300% increase in requests for emergency contraception, and Plan C, a website specialised in providing information on how to access abortion pills, had a 625% increase in visitors to their site, according to the Guardian.
The demand for abortion medication and emergency contraception has surged in connection with major political events.
Soon after Trump was first elected in 2016, there was an influx in women seeking long-term birth control options like IUDs.
Demands for birth control, emergency contraception and abortion pills also rose in 2022 after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
The likelihood of reproductive rights undergoing yet another ship under Trump’s tenure is spurring these mass demands in abortion medication.
The president-elect has had a lot to say over his support of a national abortion ban, but he most recently said that he would not sign such a law as president.
In addition, JD Vance, the vice president-elect who had supported a federal law restricting abortion in the past has likewise, adopted Trump’s stance of advocating for states to decide.
“Due to these inconsistencies, policy experts have said, there’s no clear road map for the future of abortion in a second Trump administration, according to NBC News.
Abortion rights was a widely debatable issue in this year’s election. Democrats had made abortion access the main focus in their campaign, and many anti-abortion Republicans — including Trump, who once boasted of his role in Roe’s downfall — grew quiet on the issue.
In the 10 states where abortion rights were on the ballot, a majority of the measures passed.
