More than half of abortions done with pill, Arizona bill to ban pills fails

(KYMA, KECY/ AP News/ CNN) - More than half of U.S. abortions in 2020 were conducted using medication, which is the first time medicine-induced abortions have crossed that threshold.

That's according to new data compiled by a reproductive rights think tank.

That's a significant rise from 2017, when medicine was used in just 39% of abortions.

For a medication abortion, patients use a two-pill regimen to end their pregnancies.

Its use has been increasing steadily since it was approved in 2000.

The pandemic made patients more comfortable with telehealth and facilitated a loosening of federal regulations around the pill.

Meanwhile, a major development regarding abortion pills in Arizona--one Republican in the House defected from a united GOP front on Thursday to defeat a measure that would have banned the manufacturing or prescribing medication to cause an abortion.

The bill that unexpectedly failed would have eliminated the choice used by half of the people who have abortions in the state, leaving a surgical procedure as the only option.