Tag Archives: abortion research
Abortion Research the Right Doesn’t Want You to Know About
The right doesn’t want women to know about abortion research saying termination is safe.
The right specializes in false science that tells women abortion causes breast cancer, leads to irreversible trauma, and shatters lives. Study after study has debunked this notion. In a world where women are made to feel ashamed and fearful of abortion, however, it’s easy for stigmatizing fake data to stick. Since the Supreme Court affirmed abortion as a Constitutional right, a few things have remained certain. Abortion saves lives. Abortion is safe. Abortion gives women more control over their lives. The right doesn’t want people to read real abortion research because that abortion research universally confirms the benefits of abortion. Here are five pieces of abortion research anti-choicers don’t want you to know.
Study: Low Abortion Clinic Access Increases Abortion Costs
Closing abortion clinics increases abortion costs.
Anti-choice crusaders often claim that closing abortion clinics lowers the abortion rate. Research has consistently found that this strategy doesn’t work. According to a new study published in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, decreased access to abortion clinics has an unintended consequence. When women travel long distances for abortion, the costs of abortion aftercare skyrocket. This puts already vulnerable women in a difficult financial position. And in some cases, taxpayers may be left holding the bill–as is the case when women visit emergency rooms and can’t afford to pay for their care.
Abortion Clinic Access and Abortion Costs
Researchers gathered data on nearly 40,000 abortions occurring between 2011 and 2012. The procedures were covered under California’s Medicaid program, which–unlike most state Medicaid programs–covers some abortion services. The study found a direct correlation between traveling long distances for an abortion and needing post-abortion medical care.
Abortion is a simple and safe medical procedure, so most abortion-seekers require no follow-up care. Even fewer need emergency care. Yet when women traveled more than 100 minutes to a clinic, they were 230% more likely to seek follow-up care in an emergency room. This trend persisted regardless of the type of abortion the woman had. This cost Medicaid programs a median $941. Women who traveled back to clinics cost Medicaid a median $536.
The study argues that patients visit emergency departments when they can’t easily get their follow-up questions answered. When access to abortion clinics is limited, and when discussions of abortion are stigmatized, women are less able to access the information they need.
How Increases in Abortion Costs Affect Women
All women included in the study were Medicaid recipients. But the study suggests that poor clinic access likely drives up costs for all women. Since Medicaid does not fund abortion in most states, this leaves women to shoulder the costs of abortion. Because lack of clinic access drives up costs, women are bearing costs they otherwise would not have to. We already know that many women delay their abortions for financial reasons. Some even choose life-threatening do-it-yourself abortions. This adds one more layer of financial barriers to abortion.
This, of course, is precisely what anti-choice activists want. Some claim that skyrocketing costs lower the abortion rate, but there’s no evidence to support this. What’s more, we already know that women denied access to abortion fare poorly. The Turnaway Study, an ongoing project that looks at women denied abortions, has found they are more likely to end up in poverty, more likely to remain in abusive relationships, and more likely to suffer poor mental health.
Removing abortion clinic access harms women and, when they choose to have them, their babies.
Lowering the Abortion Rate Without Hurting Women
Under the Affordable Care Act, the abortion rate declined. This suggests that affordable contraceptives do more to lower abortion rates than does decreased clinic access. Research has also consistently shown that a few simple strategies can significantly lower the abortion rate. Those include comprehensive sex education, access to contraceptives, family-friendly leave policies, affordable health care, and a stronger safety net.
Republican anti-choice activists consistently oppose these policies. This shows that their opposition has little to do with “protecting life,” and everything to do with punishing women. Forcing women to go to the emergency room for abortion aftercare is just one more way to penalize them for making a choice anti-choicers resent.
Why Do Anti-Choicers Keep Lying About Abortion?
Anti-choice extremists continue to lie to women about the effects of abortion, suggesting that morality has little to do with their movement. These lies are especially prevalent at so-called crisis pregnancy centers. Crisis pregnancy centers draw desperate women in with promises of free reproductive health care and pregnancy tests, then subject them to an onslaught of frightening and misleading information about abortion. “Patients” at these centers may also be told that birth control does not work, that sex outside of marriage is dangerous and wrong, or that women who have abortions are dying in droves. According to a new study of crisis pregnancy centers in Canada, misleading information and overt lies are commonplace at these facilities.
To learn more, follow ACOL’s Daily Kos story on the issue here.
Is Abortion Safe? The Answer is a Resounding Yes.
In recent weeks, it’s been nearly impossible to escape media coverage of the news that medical errors are now the third-leading cause of death in the United States. It’s enough to leave anyone terrified–especially women seeking abortions, who are often subject to a litany of false claims about abortion safety. So is abortion safe? The answer is a resounding yes. In a cultural climate where medicine is increasingly harming people, abortion remains one of the safest medical procedures a woman can undergo. And in a country where maternal mortality is rising rather than shrinking, abortion may be the best option for avoiding the clear dangers associated with a problematic childbirth culture.
To learn more about the research, read ACOL’s Daily Kos piece on the topic here.
Oklahoma Just Banned Abortions. What Happens When Women Are Denied Abortions?
Anti-choice extremists spend a lot of time lying to women about the effects of abortion. Post-abortion syndrome is not a real medical diagnosis, and there is no evidence linking breast cancer to abortion. Yet the lies continue.
What we do know is that women denied abortions face a cascade of medical, social, and psychological ill effects. From domestic abuse to poor reproductive health, being denied an abortion can have long-lasting effects on a woman’s well-being. If anti-choice activists really cared about women, they’d care about these issues just as much. But for them, life seems to end at birth, and the lives of women and children who are denied abortions don’t matter at all.
In the wake of Oklahoma’s abortion ban, recent research provides clues about what might happen to women denied abortions. To read the research and learn more about the ban, read ACOL’s story on Daily Kos here.
Find Oklahoma abortion clinics in Tulsa and Oklahoma City. Oklahoma abortion clinics that offer abortion pill, medical abortion, surgical abortions, morning after pill, birth control and family planning counseling.
