On average, a woman in the United States must wait about one week between making an appointment for abortion care and accessing the procedure, according to a new study from the Guttmacher Institute, Rewire reports.
Study details
For the study, researchers surveyed women at 87 abortion clinics in the United States between April 2014 and June 2015. The researchers asked women about several topics, including when women made their appointments, the distance they traveled to the clinic and why they selected the facility where they received care. The researchers did not survey women who were unable to reach a clinic to receive abortion care.
Key findings
The researchers found that, on average, 76 percent of respondents had to wait 7.6 days between scheduling an appointment for abortion care and accessing care. Seven percent reported waiting more than two weeks between scheduling an appointment and receiving care.
According to the researchers, women who had to wait more than two weeks for abortion care cited three primary factors for the delay: personal challenges, such as difficulties paying rent; living in a state with a mandatory delay law; and being in the second trimester of pregnancy, when it is more difficult to access care.
Overall, 54 percent of respondents resided in a state without a mandatory delay law, 22 percent lived in states with mandatory delay laws, and 24 percent resided in states with both mandatory delay laws and biased counseling mandates. Ninety percent of women in the study were in the first trimester of pregnancy.
Most of the women in the study had incomes at or below the federal poverty level (FPL), had at least one child and experienced at least one personal challenge, such as loss of employment, within the last year. Forty-six percent of the women paid out of pocket for their abortion care. Rewire reports that the study's findings align with previous research that suggests three-quarters of women who receive abortion care have incomes at or near FPL and 53 percent cover the cost of abortion care out of pocket, likely exacerbating care delays.
Comments
According to Rachel Jones, lead author of the study and principal research scientist at the Guttmacher Institute, the study marks the first investigation into how long women must wait between scheduling and receiving abortion care. As a result, the researchers were unable to assess whether delays in accessing care have increased or decreased.
However, Jones said delayed access to care can force women to remain pregnant longer, which can reduce the number of options for care and increase the cost of care. She said the findings indicate that abolishing state-mandated waiting periods on abortion care would help women access care more promptly.
Nonetheless, Jones noted, "For the women who do make it to a facility, providers are doing a good job of accommodating these women" (Knight Shine, Rewire, 8/15).
