The Effects of Mandatory Delay Laws on Abortion Patients and Providers

Abstract

As of August 1994 legislation had been passed and signed into law in fifteen states requiring women to delay abortion for a certain number of hours or days after receiving state-mandated information and being offered information on fetal development and lists of agencies which provide prenatal care or other services for women who decide to carry their pregnancies to term. In states in which mandatory delays are being enforced the required waiting period is generally 24 hours except for Kansas which requires an eight-hour delay. The authors examine how these laws have affected providers and women seeking abortions in Ohio Pennsylvania and Mississippi. Enforcement of the laws did not begin in the two former states until March 1994 but enforcement in the latter state extends back to August 1992. Even after only four months in Ohio and Pennsylvania it is clear that the restrictions have lengthened the time needed to obtain an abortion especially for women who do not live near a provider and those who must make more than one trip. The lack of abortion providers in many of these states counties makes mandatory delays in obtaining services a real obstacle for some women. Women who must make two visits may incur substantial expenses for transportation accommodations or child care as well as time lost from work school or other responsibilities. It is estimated that the 24-hour delay in Mississippi during the last part of 1992 and 1993 prevented approximately 11-13% of the women who would have had abortions from doing so. Their failure to follow through with abortions however does not appear to be due to the receipt of mandated information. Moreover the legislation is causing women to have their abortions later in the course of pregnancy and have increased clinic operating costs which may be passed onto clients. The authors also explain that the lack of disproportionate effects upon minors nonwhite women and women who live long distances from a provider may be due to these womens need to overcome substantial barriers to obtain abortion services even before the law went into effect.