How Do Women End Pregnancies?
Mostly via the surgical option; however, medication abortion is rising in popularity, though still far from Western Europe,
Although many limitations remain, innovative dispensing efforts in some states, restricted access to surgical abortions in others and greater awareness boosted medication abortions to 43 percent of pregnancy terminations at Planned Parenthood clinics, the nation's single largest provider, in 2014, up from 35 percent in 2010, according to previously unreported figures from the nonprofit.
Women who ask for the medication prefer it because they can end a pregnancy at home, with a partner, in a manner more like a miscarriage, said Tammi Kromenaker, director of the Red River Women's Clinic in Fargo, North Dakota.
Studies have shown medical abortions are effective up to 95 percent of the time.
Approved in France in 1988, the abortion pill was supposed to be a game changer, a convenient and private way to end pregnancy. In Western Europe, medication abortion is more common, accounting for 91 percent of pregnancy terminations in Finland, the highest rate, followed by Scotland at 80 percent, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit research organization that supports abortion rights.
Despite a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that abortion is a woman's right, access varies widely by state. Some states maintain restrictions on both surgical and medication abortions; others have worked to increase access.
Family planning, regardless of political views, is also the single best health intervention in terms of return for each dollar spent according to the Copenhagen Consensus' analysis of the Sustainable Development Goals. It returns an average of $120 for every one dollar invested in universal access to reproductive health.
So while it is woman's right in the United States to an abortion, family planning, sexual and reproductive health, and access to contraceptives of all kinds happens to also be one of the best investments available for increased global development.
The whole article is worth a read.