Abstract
Abortion funds are key actors in mitigating barriers to abortion access, particularly in contexts where state-level abortion access restrictions are concentrated. Using 2017–2019 case management data from a regional abortion fund in the southeastern U.S., we described the sociodemographic and service use characteristics of cases overall (n = 9585) and stratified by state of residence (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee). Overall, cases represented people seeking abortion fund assistance who predominately identified as non-Hispanic Black (81%), 18–34 years of age (84%), publicly or uninsured (87%), having completed a high school degree or some college (70%), having one or more children (77%), and as Christian (58%). Most cases involved an in-state clinic (81%), clinic travel distance under 50 miles (63%), surgical abortion (66%), and pregnancy under 13 weeks’ gestation (73%), with variation across states. The median abortion fund contribution pledge was $75 (interquartile range (IQR): 60–100), supplementing median caller contributions of $200 (IQR: 40–300). These data provide a unique snapshot of a population navigating disproportionate, intersecting barriers to abortion access, and abortion fund capacity for social care and science. Findings can inform abortion fund development, data quality improvement efforts, as well as reproductive health, rights and justice advocacy, policy, and research.
Highlights
Access Reproductive Care-Southeast (ARC-Southeast) is a regional reproductive justice non-profit and National Network of Abortion Funds (NNAF) member organization based in Atlanta, GA that provides funding and logistical support to ensure safe and compassionate reproductive health care, including abortion services, to people living in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, South
In a time when access to legal abortion in the United States is under unprecedented threat, in southeastern U.S states, a sense of the sociodemographic and service use characteristics reported by abortion fund callers in this region is timely
Our research provides information regarding how this population self-identifies, the type of abortion care they received, at which gestations, and how far they had to travel for abortion care, among other lived experiences
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. State-level policies more frequently and repeatedly restricted abortion access in the United States (U.S.), compared to the prior decades since Roe v. Wade established the legal right to abortion [1]. Restrictive abortion policies, such as bans on insurance coverage, targeted regulation of abortion providers, gestational age limits, and medication abortion restrictions, are heavily concentrated in a few geographic regions [2]
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