Turnaway Study Author discusses potential 16-week ban

Her research showed that being denied an abortion affected women financially and physically

With former President Donald Trump reputedly calling for a 16-week federal ban, it’s helpful to look at the potential impact such a move would have on the women who it would affect.

I spoke to Dr. Diana Greene Foster, the author of The Turnaway Study: The Cost of Denying Women Access to Abortion. Foster conducted a 10-year study that followed 1,000 American women to see what the consequences were for women who both had abortions as well as those who were turned away. 

Foster’s research showed that women who received the abortion they wanted were far better off in many metrics than those who weren’t able to get one. Her study included many who were beyond the 16-week mark. 

“There are many factors that lead people to need abortions later in pregnancy,” Foster said. “And that can include troubles accessing care, which are probably even worse now than when I led that study.” 

Foster interviewed the women by phone twice a year for up to five years. The team of researchers asked about their mental, physical, and financial well-being. 

Antiabortion activists have characterized women in these situations as indecisive. While 37 percent of women reported to Foster’s team that they took time to decide, it was usually a matter of days instead of weeks that they thought about it. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 90 percent of people having abortions are in the first trimester. About 8 percent have them in the second. And only 1 percent have one after 20 weeks. 

Foster said people need to understand what a 16-week ban means. It doesn’t establish a federal standard as many Republican operatives have implied. What it means is that all states can’t permit abortions past that mark unless they fall under some exception. States would still be free to restrict the procedure before that if they wanted to. 

The consequences could be harmful. Foster found that in the short term, women who were denied abortions suffered more from depression and anxiety. But over the long run, it isn’t so much about mental health, as her research showed that it had a negligible effect. However, it does influence physical and socioeconomic health. 

While most people focus on maternal health and fetal deformities, other reasons also lead many women to have abortions later in pregnancy. They may not know they’re pregnant because they have pre-existing conditions that present symptoms similar to pregnancy. They may have been using hormonal methods that stopped them from having periods and then subsequently believed they couldn’t get pregnant. 

“There's very little sympathy for people who are late because they don't realize they're pregnant,” Foster said. “But it can absolutely happen to anybody.”