Over-the-counter abortion medication is not a reality currently. Grossman is not aware of any pending applications at the Food and Drug Administration for medication abortion to be sold over-the-counter. And in fact, there are more than a dozen states where abortion through any method and at any point of pregnancy is banned. Some of those states are pursuing court cases to curb access to the medication even further.

"There's so much discussion about the restrictions on medication abortion that are not evidence-based," says Grossman, director of Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health at the University of California, San Francisco. He points to decades of research establishing the safety and efficacy of the two drugs used in medication abortion. "It's exciting to see science pointing us in another direction, where access could be expanded."

For this study, researchers surveyed 168 patients waiting to see a clinician to receive medication abortion. "If they were interested and eligible to participate in the study, they looked at a box that is kind of like a prototype packaging for what an over-the-counter medication abortion package might look like," explains Grossman. The box took them a long time to develop, he adds, explaining that they named the prototype "MiMi" for the two medications, mifepristone and misoprostol.

Based on the information on the box, patients assessed whether they would be good candidates for the medication. Then, researchers compared the patient's self-assessment to the assessment of the clinician they went on to see.