O07The impact of the texas abortion ban on gestational age at time of abortion in a large-volume colorado clinic

Abstract

<h3>Objectives</h3> To assess changes in the proportion of Texas residents, gestational age at time of abortion, and rates of second-trimester abortion, at a university-affiliated abortion clinic in Colorado after Texas passed Senate Bill 8 (SB8), which prohibits abortions >6 weeks' gestation. <h3>Methods</h3> We focused on all patients obtaining an abortion ≤22 weeks' gestation at a university-affiliated clinic between January 2018 and mid-April 2022. We created two time periods: before SB8 (January 2018–August 2021) and after SB8 (September 2021–April 2022). We compared the proportion of Texas residents obtaining care and gestational age categories before and after SB8 using chi-square tests. We determined the adjusted odds of a second-trimester abortion (≥13 weeks) after SB8 using logistic regression models adjusted for gravida, parity, age, and the proportion of Texas residents. <h3>Results</h3> We assessed 4,358 abortions; 3,630 before and 728 after SB8. After SB8, the proportion of patients who were Texas residents increased from 1% to 17%, p<0.001. Among all patients, abortions ≥15 weeks increased from 11% to 21%, p<0.01, and surgical abortions at 6–10 weeks decreased from 46% to 33%, p<0.001. There was no change in abortions at 11–14 weeks. The proportion of second-trimester abortions increased from 17% to 27%, p<0.001 and the odds nearly doubled after SB8 (aOR1.9, 95% CI, 1.6–2.3). Although higher among Texas residents (aOR, 2.6, 95% CI,1.1–6.9), the odds of a second-trimester abortion also increased among Colorado residents (aOR,1.8, 95% CI, 1.4–2.2). <h3>Conclusions</h3> Post-<i>Roe</i> abortion bans will likely delay care not only for people forced to seek care out of state, but for residents of states maintaining abortion access.