Women in US are ‘stockpiling’ morning-after pill following Roe v Wade decision

Women in the US have been frantically stockpiling the morning-after contraceptive pill following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade, a landmark legal decision which grants citizens the right to access abortions.

The rejected precedent effectively prohibits abortion access across more than half the US, with individual states now able to determine whether to offer the medical procedure.

Just The Pill, a non-profit organisation offering abortion pills by mail, reported a fourfold increase in appointments following the decision, while Hey Jane, a health provider operating in six states, said that patient demand for their service more than doubled following Friday’s judgement, with website traffic 10 times higher than usual.

Demand for online health company Stix’s morning-after pill surged by more than 600 per cent in the 24 hours after the ruling, the New York Times reported, with the company’s chief executive Cynythia Plotch adding that “72 per cent of those people were buying more than one dose.”

Telehealth company Wisp also reported a 40 per cent surge in sales of emergency contraception after the Roe v Wade draft was leaked in May, while it witnessed a 25 per cent spike in the hours following the official announcement on Friday.

Elsewhere, the country’s largest pharmacy chain, CVS, capped purchases of morning-after pills to three per order on Saturday to ensure “equitable access and consistent supply on store shelves”.

At time of press, 11 US states have banned abortion, with around 15 more expected to follow suit - around half of the country’s 50 states.

Currently, Ohio, Kentucky, Utah, Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wisconsin have all banned abortion, a move that forces many pregnant people to carry their pregnancies to term unless they can travel to a state that permits the procedure.

Texas, Idaho and Wyoming are expected to join the growing list imminently.

Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood, a non-profit providing reproductive care throughout the US, described the ruling as “horrific”, noting that marginalised communities, people with disabilities, low-income individuals and those living in rural areas will bear the brunt of the ban.

She warned that other reversals on protections relating to reproductive freedoms would follow: “Make no mistake: if they can take away the right to abortion, a right we’ve held for nearly 50 years, they won’t stop here. All of our freedoms are on the line,” she said.