Expert discusses decrease in types of abortion care performed
Procedural abortion is vital to preserve as an option for pregnancy care. Bans and restrictions have prevented it from being available in some parts of the country.
(Nancy Berglas)
Unsurprisingly, the number of abortion workers who perform the procedure later in pregnancy has dwindled since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. A new study that will be published next month indicates that.
The article will appear in Obstetrics & Gynecology. I spoke with its coauthor, Dr. Nancy Berglas, about the findings. From 2021 to 2023, the total number of publicly advertising facilities providing procedural abortion decreased from 473 to 421.
“The availability of people to get an abortion when they want it has become so terribly limited,” Berglas said. “And for abortions later in pregnancy, it's even more extreme. The distances people need to travel to get the care they want and need have become tremendously more limited.
“That is particularly true in certain areas of the country where abortion has been banned or restricted to very early in pregnancy.”
The number of facilities offering procedural abortion later in pregnancy decreased (327 to 309 providing 14 weeks of gestation or later, 60 to 50 providing 24 weeks of gestation or later). However, the proportion of all facilities providing these services held steady. The most significant changes were in the South, where many facilities closed.
“People have to travel much farther,” Berglas said. “They have to gather money, plan logistics, figure out how to take time off of work, figure out how to stay overnight, maybe, or arrange childcare, and figure out a whole host of things to access an abortion.
“If they're farther along in their pregnancy, this causes huge stress for individuals and strains the healthcare system.”
A key point of the modern abortion rights movement has been and must be an effort to preserve procedure abortion as an option. Medication abortion is the predominant method, but that hasn’t negated the need for D&C and other methods of ending pregnancies. As we’ve seen in several instances, laws that forbid or limit can lead to serious health consequences and even deaths.
That wasn’t the focus of the study, but it may be something worth researching further for health scientists.