Self-managed abortions using abortion pills increased in the six months following the Supreme Court decision that repealed federal abortion protections, new research shows.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on Monday, is a groundbreaking look at how self-managed abortion using abortion pills is becoming more and more common since the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Its one of the few studies to analyze the prevalence of abortion outside of formal health care settings in the U.S.

Researchers found that 27,838 provisions of pills for abortions were sent to abortion-seeking people via community groups, international telemedicine organizations and online sources, in the six months after the Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health decision that repealed Roe v. Wade.

Each of these provisions is defined as the mailing or delivering of a pill pack for a self-managed abortion, the lead author of the study, University of Texas at Austin associate professor Abigail Aiken, told HuffPost. The number of pill packs distributed represents a 322% average monthly increase from pre-Dobbs levels of medication abortion used for self-managing care, according to the analysis.

We see over and over that when abortion bans are present, it doesnt necessarily change the need for abortion, Aiken told HuffPost. People quite often will look for it outside the formal health care setting if access within the formal health care setting is taken away, and I think thats what were seeing play out here now.

Self-managed abortion refers to using drugs either mifepristone and misoprostol or just misoprostol to induce abortion without the oversight of an abortion clinic or physician. The study defined self-managed care as abortion pills used without the involvement of a U.S.-based provider or clinic. (Its tally doesnt account for medication abortion drugs distributed through U.S.-based telehealth.)

Abortion done this way is safe and effective for anyone less than 13 weeks pregnant, according to the World Health Organization .

The Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear oral arguments in FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine , which may roll back access to mifepristone. The outcome of the case could have a devastating effect on medication abortion access within formal health care settings like clinics meaning the research out Monday could be a sneak peek into a future where self-managed abortion is more common because physician-managed abortion care is further restricted.

From a public health standpoint if this is going to be the way that many people access their abortion care now in the United States, knowing that they have a safe and effective way of doing that means the picture looks pretty different to the pre-Roe era, when people didnt have access [and] had to resort to things that were unsafe, Aiken said.