Life circumstances of women accessing abortion services in the United States

Previous research has established that a majority of women having abortions is poor or low-income. Poverty status is assumed to represent difficulties meeting financial obligations such as paying rent and buying food, but the difficulties faced by poor women are likely to extend beyond these more obvious ones. New data from a nationally representative sample of 9,483 U.S. abortion patients and 49 in-depth interviews with patients at three abortion clinics collected in 2008-2009 examine women's life circumstances at the time of their abortion. The survey data reveal that 42% of women having abortions in 2008 were poor, 61% had one or more children and 85% were unmarried. In the last 12 months, patients reported that they had experienced unemployment (20%), separation from a partner or husband (16%), and falling behind on rent or mortgage payments (15%). Unemployment, moving two or more times and having had a baby in the last year were all reported more commonly by poor women than women in other income groups. The qualitative data found that difficult life circumstances that led to the unintended pregnancy were closely related to the reasons for choosing an abortion, making it even harder for these women to effectively manage the legal barriers to abortion services (e.g., waiting periods, lack of Medicaid coverage).