Perceptions of medication and procedural abortion among medication abortion patients in Mississippi, USA.

Drawing upon 46 interviews with respondents who had medication abortions in Mississippi in 2021 or 2022, I explore retrospective perceptions of medication and procedural abortion. Respondents saw medication abortion as akin to a `natural' miscarriage, and offered greater comfort, privacy, and control over both the abortion experience and practical considerations like travel costs. When asked if they would have preferred procedural abortions, respondent accounts invoked information gleaned online and from family and friends, explicit fears of surgery and pain, and perceived risks of psychological trauma and medical complications. These factors made a hypothetical procedural abortion undesirable to the point that some respondents had opted for a contraindicated medication abortion over procedural abortion. Other respondents reported they would have forgone abortion altogether if medication abortion had not been available. I conclude by considering how my findings support and expand upon earlier studies and what misinformation about procedural abortion may mean in a post-Dobbs world.