Mail-Order Abortions are Out of Control, Killing Hundreds of Thousands of Babies

The number of abortions in the U.S. continued to rise in 2025, according to a new report, while the number of unborn lives lost to the abortion drug jumped dramatically. The Guttmacher Institute, founded as a component of Planned Parenthood in 1968, published its annual abortion report this month, recording 1,126,000 abortions in the U.S. over the course of 2025, up slightly from 1,124,000 over the course of 2024. While Guttmacher did study the number of abortions via remote prescription of the abortion drug mifepristone, it did not include those statistics in its total, so the report represents “an underestimate of the total number of abortions nationally.” Nonetheless, 2025 represented the highest number of reported abortions since 2009.

Guttmacher reported that over 140,000 women traveled across state lines seeking abortions, down from 154,000 who did the same in 2024 and 170,000 in 2023. Of those who crossed state lines for abortions, 62,000 came from states where pro-life laws prohibited abortions, down from 74,000 in 2024. Guttmacher attributed this decrease in intrastate abortion travel to the increasing prevalence of remotely-prescribed and dispensed abortion drugs. According to the report, the number of abortion drugs shipped by abortionists in blue states with “shield laws,” protecting them from prosecution for violating other states’ pro-life laws, increased from 72,000 in 2024 to 91,000 last year, an increase of 26%.

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“It makes sense that we’d see a decline in travel. Because people accessing abortion care through telehealth in general, then they no longer need to travel for care,” Guttmacher data scientist Isaac Maddow-Zimet said in an interview with The Hill. “So it’s not surprising, per se, but it is the first time that we’ve been able to put out specific numbers showing this shift.” Guttmacher previously estimated that the abortion drug accounted for nearly two-thirds (63%) of abortions nationwide in 2023, up from 53% in 2020, before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood.

A recent report from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health found that the majority of abortions committed by in-state abortionists are being conducted via mail-order abortion drugs shipped out of state, predominantly to red states with pro-life laws in place. Maddow-Zimet admitted that most of those abortions are taking place in states like Alabama or Texas, adding, “There’s very little physical travel into Massachusetts for care at brick and mortar facilities.”

In last week’s “Washington Watch” interview, Michael New, associate scholar at the Charlotte Lozier Institute and a professor at the Catholic University of America, shared, “The main lesson I draw from this is that pro-lifers really need to put a clamp and stop telehealth abortions.” He added that the increase in mail-order abortion drugs is “really driving these numbers up. So if we really want to get abortion numbers down, we really need to do something and stop telehealth abortions.”

Since President Donald Trump returned to office early last year, pro-life organizations and Republican lawmakers have repeatedly called on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to restore prior safety guidelines surrounding the prescription and dispensing of the abortion drug, particularly demanding that the FDA reinstitute a policy requiring in-person physician visits to obtain a mifepristone prescription and that the drug be dispensed in-person. “Sadly, it’s the FDA’s policy that for a long time, up until 2020, women who wanted to obtain a chemical abortion had to have an in-person medical exam,” New said, echoing those concerns. “Even though abortion is tragic, that at least was a good safeguard.”

When mifepristone was first approved by the FDA in 2000, numerous safeguards were put in place, including requirements for multiple in-person physician visits prior to prescription, follow-up appointments to address adverse side effects, and the requirement that the drug be dispensed and consumed in the presence of a physician. Former President Barack Obama weakened those safeguards in 2011 and 2016, and former President Joe Biden further diluted the remaining safeguards in 2021, allowing the drug to be prescribed remotely and consumed at home, with no prior medical evaluation.

“Sadly, the Trump administration has continued this unwise policy as well. The Trump administration has the power to end abortions tomorrow,” New commented. “They could restore the U.N. rules, the previous rules, and see that the women who obtain these chemical abortions at least have to have an in-person medical exam. So it’s partly the fault of Biden, but sadly, also partly the fault of the Trump administration.”

A recent survey from CRC Research found that 67% of Americans support restoring in-person medical exam requirements before mifepristone prescription, 70% support restoring required in-person appointments prior to and following prescription of the drug, and nearly half (49%) said that they would be less likely to support an elected representative who supports the remote prescribing and dispensing of the abortion drug, compared to only 29% who said that they would be more likely to support that representative.

A prior study, conducted by Cygnal, warned that nearly one third (32%) of Republican voters would be less likely to vote in November’s midterm elections if GOP representatives do not address the remote prescribing and dispensing of mifepristone, while 70% of Republican voters want to restore stricter safeguards surrounding the drug, 80% want the FDA to restore in-person requirements for the prescribing and dispensing of mifepristone, and 71% opposed allowing the abortion drug to be prescribed remotely and mailed.

“I really don’t know why the Trump administration and the Trump appointees, FDA, are so scared of this issue. It’s just good public health. It’s common sense,” New commented. “I don’t know what polls they’re seeing or who they’re getting advice from at this point, but I think that, again, limits on telehealth abortion are good politics, good policy. I really don’t know why the Trump administration is waiting on this issue.”

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