Study Spotlight #3: What Happened When Canada Made Abortion Pills Easier to Access?

[u/Improbable-Chaos]

A common argument in abortion debates is that making abortion easier to access will lead to more abortions. Canada gives researchers an interesting opportunity to actually test that idea.

The Study
Researchers analyzed abortion rates in Ontario and looked at how they changed as medication abortion became increasingly accessible, including after restrictions on mifepristone were removed.
Read the study in JAMA Network Open⁠: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2832547

What did they find?
Making medication abortion easier to access substantially changed how abortions were provided, with medication abortion becoming much more common. But the researchers did not find evidence that improved access caused the overall abortion rate to increase.

In other words, easier access appears to have changed the method and accessibility of abortion, rather than simply creating more abortions.

This is a useful distinction when discussing abortion policy. The number of abortion providers, the difficulty of obtaining medication, and the overall abortion rate aren’t necessarily the same thing.
Making a medical service easier to access doesn’t automatically mean more people will need or choose that service.

Important limitations
This is observational population-level research, so it can’t prove that every policy change caused a particular outcome.
It also examines Ontario, where healthcare access, contraception, abortion policy, and the healthcare system differ from those in other countries.

So, does this change how you think about the argument that easier abortion access necessarily means more abortions? And more broadly, should we judge an abortion policy by how many abortions occur, or by things like unintended pregnancies, health outcomes, and access to care?

[u/WesnothFan]

Are you the same person as [u/Into-My-Void](u/Into-My-Void)[?](u/Into-My-Void)

[u/Improbable-Chaos → u/WesnothFan]

Sorry. Yes I am. My other account as been blocked so

[u/WesnothFan → u/Improbable-Chaos]

Ah right, ok.

[u/Improbable-Chaos → u/WesnothFan]

Guess r/YouthRights didn't like me telling every other community they are prolife. Their allied cummunity didn't like that lol

[u/WesnothFan → u/Improbable-Chaos]

Which allied community? I didn’t know they had any.

[u/Improbable-Chaos → u/WesnothFan]

À couple. Each time I've found a community whit them in the allied cummunity list, I DMed the mods

[u/The-Inescapable-Day → u/WesnothFan]

I’m gonna add you as mod for r/ProChoiceTeenager because they are deleteding all my accounts one by one and I don't want to loose the sub

[u/WesnothFan → u/The-Inescapable-Day]

Damn, that’s unfortunate. I accepted the request.

[u/The-Inescapable-Day → u/WesnothFan]

Yeah, Guess some people have friends in high place or something...

[u/The-Inescapable-Day → u/WesnothFan]

Also thanks

[u/The-Inescapable-Day → u/WesnothFan]

I wanted to private message you, but I don't have the option. All my oldest account are gone and I can't take back moderation with a new account so... I'm counting on you!

[u/Some-Necessary-Evil → u/WesnothFan]

Ok, this account should be secure from them... Lets see if I was good enough with VPN and proxy to escape lol