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Even in United States, access is tied to economic status


May 15, 2006
US woman
Regardless of where women live, those with more access to financial resources often have more access to abortion services.
Photo by Richard Lord.

Since the advent of modern contraceptives and legal abortion, millions of women in the United States have been better able to control their reproductive destinies. However, a recently released report from the Guttmacher Institute, “Abortion in Women’s Lives,” reveals that many U.S. women can’t benefit from these advancements — because they just can’t afford them.

“Abortion in Women’s Lives” examines the reasons why women worldwide have abortions, debunks medical myths about the procedure and follows policies’ impact on access to reproductive-health services.

It also reveals the economics of abortion, documenting disturbing disparities between women in the United States. And the dividing line is income.

When it comes to facing hurdles to abortion care, a woman living at the poverty level in rural Mississippi — a state with only one abortion provider and tough legislation that targets such clinics — might have more in common with a woman in Mexico than she does with an affluent urbanite in her own country.

According to the report, from the 1980s to mid-1990s, women of all income levels were more likely to use contraceptives, thus decreasing the likeliness of unintended pregnancy.

But since 1994, unplanned pregnancy rates among poor women have increased by 29 percent, while rates among higher-income women have decreased by 20 percent.

Money matters; around the world, the ability to pay for an abortion often guarantees access. In the United States, almost three-quarters (74 percent) of women have to pay out-of-pocket for their own abortions.

According to 2001 Guttmacher statistics, women who had a surgical abortion at 10 weeks gestation paid $372 for the procedure at clinics. But without the lower costs in clinics, the average charge for such an abortion would be $468.

So women turn to clinics rather than their hospitals or doctors. Those avenues of care are often blocked by state and federal restrictions for abortion funding. Some states limit the use of private insurance for abortions or don’t allow any state monies to cover them, either. And since 1977, the Hyde Amendment has blocked the use of Medicaid funding for abortions, except in cases of rape, incest or when a woman’s life is in danger.

However, getting coverage under those circumstances can be difficult.  For instance, the state of Arkansas has rejected all requests it has received for Medicaid funding of abortions since 1990.

With the right to abortion ever more under siege in the United States, “Abortion in Women’s Lives” demonstrates that the right to abortion is not distributed equally.  Despite the 1973 Supreme Court ruling overturning laws that ban abortion, women in the United States have much in common with women in countries with restrictive abortion laws. Wherever you live, money buys access.

For more information, contact:
Kirsten Sherk
Senior Associate, Media Relations
e-mail: sherkk@ipas.org
phone: 919.960.5612
fax: 919.929.0258