Abortions rise in 2024 as telemedicine and shield laws drive surge in mail-order pills, report finds

06/29/2025 / By Laura Harris

A new report from the Society of Family Planning shows that by the end of 2024, 25 percent of all U.S. abortions were performed via mail-order pills, up from just seven percent in 2022, with nearly half going to people in states where abortion is banned.
Telemedicine abortion is largely facilitated by providers in “shield law” states like New York and California, which legally protect doctors who prescribe abortion pills across state lines. Currently, 22 states and Washington, D.C. have such laws.
A Daily Caller News Foundation investigation revealed how easy it is to order abortion pills online, often without medical supervision, pregnancy confirmation or gestational screening, raising serious safety concerns.
Critics argue that the process exposes women to potential complications like hemorrhage and infection, with minimal safeguards in place. Some providers ship pills for use well beyond the FDA-approved 10-week limit.
Medical professionals and advocacy groups, including AAPLOG, warn that mail-order abortions lack proper oversight, result in avoidable harm and are often misused, calling the practice “medical negligence.”

A new Society of Family Planning report has revealed that a growing number of abortions in the U.S. were performed via telemedicine in 2024, with abortion pills mailed across state lines playing a central role, particularly in states where the procedure is largely banned.

According to the report, one in four abortions were conducted using mail-order medication by the end of 2024, a dramatic increase from just seven percent at the close of 2022. This marks a more than threefold increase from just seven percent in 2022.

Driving this transformation are telemedicine services operating from so-called “shield law” states, including New York, Massachusetts and California, which have enacted legal protections for providers prescribing abortion pills to patients in states with abortion bans. The report also found that nearly half of all mail-order abortions in 2024 went to people living in such restrictive states.

Currently, 22 states and Washington, D.C., have passed some form of shield law. Of those, eight explicitly allow providers to offer cross-border telemedicine abortion care without fear of prosecution from anti-abortion states. (Related: Louisiana classifies abortion pills as controlled DANGEROUS SUBSTANCES.)

An average of 12,330 abortions per month in 2024 were conducted through these shield law-supported services. Over the full year, more than 1.14 million abortions were performed nationwide, an increase from approximately 1.06 million in 2023, despite 19 states enacting near-total bans or severe restrictions following the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Pro-life advocates sound alarm over the rise of mail-order abortion

In line with the results, pro-life medical professionals and advocacy groups are raising urgent concerns about the dangerous and underregulated system.

An investigation by the Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF), conducted this June, demonstrated how easily abortion pills can be obtained online. In just five minutes, investigators at the DCNF were able to order abortion pills online with no doctor visit, no pregnancy confirmation and no gestational screening required. The ease of access exposes a gaping hole in abortion drug oversight following the Food and Drug Administration‘s (FDA) 2021 decision to allow mail-order abortions.

The DCNF investigation highlights how several online providers, operating under relaxed FDA standards, distribute abortion pills under circumstances that critics say fall far short of even the agency’s basic safety expectations.

DCNF obtained five sets of mifepristone and misoprostol – the FDA-approved two-drug regimen for medication abortion – by completing brief online forms with minimal screening. Some sites asked basic health questions, but only one requested photo identification. Prices ranged from $90 to $150, with packages arriving in as few as three days. None required a medical consultation or proof of pregnancy.

One package arrived with a handwritten note that read, “You are brave.” None came with a warning that the drugs could cause hemorrhage, infection or sepsis, complications that are more common than the public is led to believe.

“We have not only seen women suffer and die from complications that could have been prevented by basic medical supervision, but also, we have seen women losing wanted pregnancies after being poisoned with these drugs by abusers,” said Christina Francis, CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists. “Mail-order abortion amounts to medical negligence and laws preventing states from enforcing pro-life laws against this dangerous practice only perpetuate its harms to our patients – preborn babies and pregnant women.”

Read more stories like this at Abortions.news.

Watch this 2023 video about the U.S. Supreme Court restoring access to the mifepristone abortion pill.

This video is from the Pool Pharmacy channel on Brighteon.com.