Journal Article Perceived Access to Abortion among Women in the United States in 2019
Krista Perreira, Emily M. Johnston, Adele Shartzer, Sophia Yin
Display Date

In this journal article, we describe perceptions of access to abortion among women of reproductive age and their associations with state abortion policy contexts. We used data from the 2018 Survey of Family Planning and Women’s Lives, a probability-based sample of 2,115 adult women age 18 to 44 years in US households.

We found that 27.6 percent of women believed that access to medical abortion was difficult and 30.1 percent of women believed that access to surgical abortion was difficult. Adjusted for covariates, women were significantly more likely to perceive access to both surgical and medical abortions as difficult when they lived in states with four or more restrictive abortion policies compared with states with fewer restrictions Specific restrictive abortion policies (e.g., public funding restrictions, mandatory counseling or waiting periods, and targeted regulation of abortion providers) were also associated with greater perceived difficulty accessing both surgical and medical abortions.

Access the article on the American Journal of Public Health's website.

Research Areas Health and health care
Tags Sexual and reproductive health
Policy Centers Health Policy Center