FACT:

Anti-abortion lawmakers pass laws to delay care

The strategy by abortion opponents is clear: put barriers in place that force people further into pregnancy and then ban access to abortion later in pregnancy. Anti-abortion politicians have created a web of barriers that push safe and affordable abortion care out of reach across the country. The harms of these bans fall mainly on disadvantaged communities: people with lower incomes, those in rural communities, young people who lack parental support, and Black, brown, Indigenous, and people of color.

Abortion bans don’t remove the need for abortion care, they just push care out of reach and cause harm.

FACT: 

Many people are unable to access desired abortion care 

 People seek abortions later in pregnancy for the same reasons they do earlier in pregnancy, but many are not able to access care once they decide to do so due to compounding delays.

Barriers to obtaining abortion care earlier in pregnancy include:

• Systemic racism in health care (“The Fall of ‘Roe’ Was Driven by Our Country’s Original Sin: Anti-Blackness,” Rewire News Group)
• Later discovery of pregnancy — 1 in 13.5 people discover they are pregnant after 12 weeks and 1 in 475 people discover their pregnancy after 20 weeks (WhoNotWhen.com)
• Lack of abortion providers available to give care — 87% of U.S. counties do not have abortion providers (“Contraceptive Needs and Services, 2014 Update,” The Guttmacher Insitute) and over 275 clinics have closed in recent years (“For Millions of American Women, Abortion Access is Out of Reach,” New York Times)
• Logistical factors, such as difficulty taking time off from work or school, caregiving responsibilities, and lack of access to transportation (“Texas Abortion Ban Poses New Challenges for Students,” Inside Higher Ed)
• Limited financial resources to pay for the logistics to access abortion, as well as the procedure itself — 36% of people who have abortions later in pregnancy reported that the cost of the procedure was a barrier to accessing care (“Timing of steps and reasons for delays in obtaining abortions in the United States,” The Guttmacher Institute)
• Misinformation about abortion options or about an individual’s pregnancy, like gestational age bans (“Gestational Age Bans: Harmful at Any Stage of Pregnancy,” The Guttmacher Institute) and intentionally inaccurate information from fake clinics, known as “crisis pregnancy centers” (“Four Women Reflect on Traveling Out of State for Their Abortions,” Condé Nast Traveler)
• Restrictive state laws — 43 states have laws or policies regarding abortion care that go beyond what is necessary to ensure patients’ safety (“State Bans on Abortion Throughout Pregnancy,” The Guttmacher Institute)
• Disabilities and underlying health conditions (“A Voice for Choice,” Chronogram)
• Harassment, intimidation, and violence at abortion clinic entrances — about 50% of people seeking an abortion report seeing protesters at clinics (“Introduction to the Turnaway Study,” Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health)

Abortion seekers often face more than one of these barriers at once, making it even more difficult to get an abortion.  

FACT: 

Any pregnant person may need an abortion later in pregnancy

 The same populations who seek abortion later in pregnancy at higher rates are disproportionately harmed by racism and structural inequity, including Black, brown, Indigenous, and people of color, young people, and people with lower incomes. These communities also often experience worse  health conditions and are more likely to be over-policed and criminalized for their pregnancy outcomes than white people.

FACT: 

Most states ban abortion at some arbitrary point in pregnancy

What bans on abortion actually do: Bans make underlying systemic inequities in wealth, education, and health care access even worse. They delay people from being able to access abortion care throughout pregnancy.

Forcing someone to carry a pregnancy against their will can have harmful and lasting consequences for them and their families.

• Studies show there are serious negative physical and economic consequences for a person who is denied abortion care and their family (“Introduction to the Turnaway Study,” Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health).
• People denied an abortion are more likely to experience subsequent poverty, to have insufficient funds to pay for basic living expenses, to have poorer health, and are more likely to stay in violent romantic relationships (“Introduction to the Turnaway Study,” Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health).
• A person who has been denied an abortion is three times more likely to be unemployed than someone who was able to obtain abortion care (“Gestational Age Bans: Harmful at Any Stage of Pregnancy,” The Guttmacher Institute). People who are able to get abortion care are six times more likely to have positive life plans and to achieve them than those denied care (“The effect of abortion on having and achieving aspirational one-year plans,” BMC Women’s Health).