Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #116613

Daniel Grossman, MD, FACOG¹, Jessica Kingston, MD², Suzanne Schweikert, MD, MPH³, Erika Troncoso, MPH⁴, Sabrina Falquier, MD², and Deborah L. Billings, PhD⁵. (1) Reproductive Health Program, Population Council, Panzacola 62-102, Col. Villa Coyoacán, Mexico, Mexico, 52-55-5999-8630, dgrossman@popcouncil.org.mx, (2) Department of Reproductive Medicine, University of California, San Diego, 200 W. Arbor Drive, #8433, San Diego, CA 92103, (3) Director of Research, Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside Counties, 1075 Camino del Rio South, San Diego, CA 92108, (4) Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, Population Council, Panzacola 62 Int 102, Col Villa Coyoacan, Mexico City 04000, Mexico, (5) Research and Evaluation, Ipas Mexico, Pachuca 92, Colonia Condesa, Mexico City, 06140, Mexico

Abortion is highly restricted in Mexico, and some women come to the US, legally or illegally, to access safe abortion services. Yet very little is known about these women. We are currently conducting a study in the San Diego-Tijuana border region to determine how common this phenomenon is, to identify barriers Mexican women overcome to obtain an abortion in the US, and to qualitatively describe the experiences of these women. We are collecting this information in two stages: first, by anonymous survey in Planned Parenthood and the University of California at San Diego abortion clinics to assess the percentage of abortion clients who are Mexican residents; and second, by in-depth interviews with 25 such women, and with 5 physicians to explore their viewpoints. The interviews with women cover such topics as prior attempts to obtain the abortion in Mexico, factors that influenced their decision to come to the US, the barriers they faced, and their sources of financial and emotional support for both travel and the abortion. This information will be useful to clinicians in the US who provide care to such women in identifying the specific needs, both health-related and social, of this population. Furthermore, understanding the complicated process women go through to access safe abortion services will be useful in the debate about liberalizing abortion laws in Mexico.

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize how common migration from Mexico to the US is to obtain safe abortion services.
• Understand the barriers Mexican women confront to obtain safe abortion in the US.
• Describe ways services could be improved in the US to address the health and social needs of this particular immigrant population.

Keywords: Abortion, Migrant Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.