Women and State Suffer When Abortion Clinic Access is Limited
Low-income women who travel long distances to receive abortions are more likely to turn to local emergency departments for follow-up care, costing the women and the state more money, according to a study from the University of California San Francisco. Distance Traveled for an Abortion and Source of Care after Abortion finds that women who traveled over 100 miles for their abortion — roughly 12 percent of women surveyed — were twice as likely to receive follow-up care at a local emergency department rather than their abortion provider due to the high cost of travel, even though the care itself was significantly more expensive. Increasing the number of abortion providers in rural areas could help reduce the number of emergency visits by rural and low-income women, the researchers say.