Requests for abortion pills skyrocketed in Texas after a state law that bans abortions around six weeks of pregnancy went into effect last September. 

A study published Friday in JAMA Network Open, by researchers at the University of Texas, found requests made by Texans to an international humanitarian organization called Aid Access, which provides abortion medication by mail, soared by nearly 1,200 percent the week Senate Bill 8 went into effect. 

During the following three weeks, that number fell, but daily requests remained significantly elevated — an average of 37.1 daily requests compared to 10.8 requests prior to the law going into place. Requests from all other U.S. states also increased during the same time period, but by much smaller amounts. 

“What we are seeing here is keeping in step with what we’ve seen in other places where abortion has been severely restricted,” said lead study author Dr. Abigail Aiken, an associate professor of public affairs at the University of Texas, Austin.

It’s unclear how many of the requests led to at-home abortions.

It’s possible that some of the […]