Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health, University of California, San Francisco, Oakland, CA, United States.
Department of Sociology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, United States.
Contraception. 2022 Feb;106:45-48. doi: 10.1016/j.contraception.2021.09.012. Epub 2021 Sep 26.
In the United States, restrictive abortion policies are concentrated in a subset of states. Little research has examined how people who consider abortion make sense of abortion obtainability and the extent of regulation of abortion care in their state.
We conducted in-depth interviews with 30 pregnant women in Maryland, a state with high abortion service availability and few policies restricting abortion, and 28 pregnant women in Louisiana, a state with low service availability and numerous restrictions, who had considered but not obtained an abortion for their pregnancy. We analyzed findings using inductive qualitative analytic techniques.
All participants were financially struggling. Most participants in Maryland considered abortion easy to get, while a plurality of participants in Louisiana considered abortion difficult to get. Yet, despite their measurable differences in access, participants in both states considered abortion generally obtainable. Participants in Louisiana who thought abortion difficult to get, but nonetheless obtainable, cited strategies that they already employed for other challenges in their lives as options for overcoming abortion barriers.
Pregnant women who consider abortion and are subject to restrictions do not necessarily perceive restrictions as barriers. Their accounts illustrate how those impacted by restrictions adapt to constraints on their reproductive autonomy just as they manage many other challenges that restrict their freedom to live self-determined lives.
Financially struggling pregnant people who considered abortion in Louisiana did not perceive restrictions as barriers to abortion, illustrating the broader adoption of strategies to deal with constraints among women living on low incomes.
在美国，限制堕胎的政策集中在少数几个州。很少有研究探讨考虑堕胎的人如何理解堕胎的可获得性以及其所在州堕胎护理的监管程度。
我们对 30 名怀孕的马里兰州妇女和 28 名怀孕的路易斯安那州妇女进行了深入访谈，马里兰州堕胎服务可用性高，堕胎政策限制少，路易斯安那州堕胎服务可用性低，堕胎政策限制多，这些妇女都曾考虑过堕胎，但没有为怀孕而堕胎。我们使用归纳定性分析技术分析研究结果。
所有参与者都经济困难。马里兰州的大多数参与者认为堕胎很容易获得，而路易斯安那州的多数参与者认为堕胎很难获得。然而，尽管他们在获得堕胎方面存在明显差异，但这两个州的参与者都认为堕胎一般是可以获得的。路易斯安那州的参与者认为堕胎很难获得，但仍然认为堕胎是可以获得的，他们列举了他们已经为生活中的其他挑战而采取的策略，作为克服堕胎障碍的选择。
考虑堕胎且受到限制的孕妇不一定将限制视为障碍。她们的描述说明了受到限制的人如何适应对其生殖自主权的限制，就像她们应对许多其他限制她们自由生活的挑战一样。
在路易斯安那州考虑堕胎且经济困难的孕妇并没有将限制视为堕胎的障碍，这说明了在经济困难的妇女中更广泛地采用了应对限制的策略。
