CHICAGO: At least 100,000 women in Texas have tried to end a pregnancy without help from a doctor and that number is expected to rise as a result of restrictive laws, a new study found.

Women took herbs, hormones, drugs, and even blows to the stomach to try to do so, according to the study published on Tuesday.

“As clinic-based care becomes harder to access in Texas, we can expect more women to feel that they have no other option and take matters into their own hands,” said study author Daniel Grossman, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco.

The study comes just days after the Supreme Court agreed on Friday to review the state’s curbs on abortion rights, its first case on the highly sensitive topic since 2007.

Among the Texas restrictions in focus is a 2013 law, passed by a Republican-controlled legislature and signed by then-governor Rick Perry, which imposes conditions that have already led to the closure of roughly half the 41 abortion clinics in the state.

Texas will be left with only 10 abortion providers for 5.4 million women of reproductive age — 1 in 12 of whom would have to drive over 160 kilometres to access a clinic — should the challenged provisions be upheld.

Published in Dawn, November 20th, 2015