Abortion Care Is Health Care: A Public Health of Consequence, September 2022

ABSTRACT

[...]although poor women saw a 26% decrease, women living at or above 200% of the poverty level saw a 36% decrease in abortions. [...]between 2011 and 2015, conservative state legislators enacted 288 restrictions on women seeking abortion care (e.g., 24-hour waiting periods, mandatory counseling, bans on abortions after the first trimester, and banning medication abortion) as well as on abortion care providers (most commonly referred to as "targeted regulation of abortion providers," or TRAP laws, that mandated a number of unnecessary and onerous burdens on providers;https//bit.ly/3NYKZLM). [...]it is possible that declines in overall fertility were related to the recession, particularly fertility among adolescents,2 women already living in poverty, and women who already had children.3 Second, use of long-acting reversible contraception increased from 6% in 2008 to 12% in 2012.4Third, women residing in Medicaid expansion states had greater access to contraception as part of their insurance coverage than did women in nonexpansion states. [...]expansion of access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care by expanding insurance coverage for these services is being proposed in several states.