Grisly DIY abortions rose 40% after Roe was overturned – including using alcohol and punching one’s stomach

A study finds that the number of DIY abortions increased after the Roe v. Wade verdict was overturned.

The researchers found that about 2.1 percent of all abortions in the US in 2021 were performed without medical supervision.

The results showed that this percentage had risen to 3.4 percent by 2023, a 40 percent increase, when abortion protections were repealed at the federal level.

Plan B emergency contraception, which prevents pregnancy but cannot be used to terminate the pregnancy, is the most commonly used. This involves herbs such as mugwort, punching the stomach, and drinking alcohol.

However, the team cautioned that while the increase is significant, self-performed abortions remain rare and the overall number remains low.

Abortions caused by drugs such as mifepristone were a major driver of the increase in self-initiated abortions, researchers at the University of California – San Francisco found

The findings come as more than a dozen states have restricted or even banned abortions following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022.

The team wrote: ‘These findings suggest that self-performed abortions are becoming increasingly common in the US. Self-performed abortions should be closely monitored as barriers to institutional care increase.’

One important caveat the team made is that when they filtered out the women who had these abortions without a confirmed pregnancy test, the differences between 2021 and 2023 were not significant.

The research was published Tuesday in JAMA Network Opened.

Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, surveyed more than 14,000 women between December 2021 and July 2023, asking whether they had ever had a “self-initiated abortion,” or an abortion without medical assistance.

The women were asked two questions. The first was whether they had ever done or had done anything. [their] ‘Trying to terminate a pregnancy yourself, without medical help.’

If they answered “no” or skipped the question, they were given a list of self-abortion methods and asked to select one they had ever used “to end a pregnancy.” [their] ‘By myself, without medical help.’

If the women answered yes to either question, they were asked how many times they had self-performed an abortion, how old they were, whether they had taken a pregnancy test, why they suspected they were pregnant, where they lived, whether the method worked, whether there were any complications, and whether they had sought medical help afterwards.

The team also wondered why the women performed their own abortions.

Additional research has shown increases. A report from reproductive health company Guttmacher Institute found that there were 1 million abortions in the U.S. in 2023, or 16 per 1,000 women. That was up 10 percent from 14.4 per 1,000 in 2020 and the highest rate since 2014, when the rate was 14.6 per 1,000.

Nearly two-thirds of abortions in 2023 were the result of drugs such as mifepristone, according to the Guttmacher Institute report

Emergency contraception was the most popular method (30 percent), followed by herbs (26 percent), hitting oneself in the stomach (21.6 percent) and alcohol or other substances (18.6 percent).

Certain herbs, such as pennyroyal, mugwort, and high doses of vitamin C, can induce abortion, but they have also been linked to liver damage.

Additionally, Dr. Ryan Marino, medical director of toxicology and addiction at University Hospitals in Cleveland, said NBC News that pennyroyal is particularly dangerous.

“Even in cases where people don’t have symptoms, or don’t end up in the hospital, it’s associated with a long-term risk of cancer,” he said. “It’s a known human carcinogen, and any time those molecules are in your body, they’re doing something bad.”

Meanwhile, the number of women using the abortion pill mifepristone increased by 40 percent between 2021 and 2023, possibly because the pill is becoming more widely available, both online and in pharmacies.

This method involves two medications, taken for a day or two. The first, mifepristone, blocks the pregnancy-supporting hormone progesterone. The second, misoprostol, induces uterine contractions.

In March, mifepristone was on the shelves of pharmacies such as CVS and Walgreen’s in five U.S. states: New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, California and Illinois.

New Mexico has seen the largest increase in abortions, possibly because it borders Arizona and Texas, which have restrictions

The map above shows the states where abortion is restricted in some form or banned altogether

The rate of self-performed abortions was highest among black women (5.1 percent in 2023) and lowest among white women (2.7 percent).

The average age at which a woman performed her first DIY abortion was around 21 in 2021 and 2023. One in five women reported having more than one DIY abortion.

The findings are consistent with other recent research, including a March report from the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health company, which found that abortions have reached their highest level since 2014.

There were several limitations to the study, including that several women may have underreported their abortions for fear of repercussions, as the procedure is illegal in several states.

In addition, self-performed abortions are rare, making the sample size small.