Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Perspect Sex Reprod Health. 2022 Sep;54(3):68-79. doi: 10.1363/psrh.12202. Epub 2022 Jul 5.
Many people wanted to avoid or delay childbearing during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study sought to examine the extent COVID-19 influenced abortion care-seeking in a region that did not enact policy restricting abortion due to the pandemic, has high service availability, and few abortion-restrictive policies.
We conducted telephone surveys with adults (n=72) requesting abortion appointments between September 2020 and March 2021 at five clinics in Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia. We used χ tests to compare sociodemographic, reproductive history, service delivery characteristics, and pandemic-related life changes by whether COVID-19 influenced abortion care-seeking.
Most respondents (93%) had an abortion at the time of the survey, 4% were awaiting their scheduled appointment, and 3% did not have an appointment scheduled. Nearly 40% of people reported COVID-19 influenced their decision to have an abortion. These individuals were significantly more likely to report "not financially prepared" (44% vs. 16%) as a reason for termination compared to people reporting no influence of COVID-19. They were also more likely to have lost or changed their health insurance due to pandemic-related employment changes (15% vs. 2%), report substantial money difficulties due to COVID-19 (59% vs. 33%), and report that paying for their abortion was "very difficult" (25% vs. 2%).
COVID-19 influenced many people to have an abortion, particularly those financially disadvantaged by the pandemic. Expansion of Medicaid abortion coverage in Washington, DC and Virginia could reduce financial barriers to care and help people to better meet their reproductive needs amid future crises.
许多人希望在 COVID-19 大流行期间避免或推迟生育。本研究旨在调查在一个没有因疫情限制堕胎政策、服务可用性高且堕胎限制政策很少的地区，COVID-19 对堕胎护理寻求的影响程度。
我们对 2020 年 9 月至 2021 年 3 月期间在华盛顿特区、马里兰州和弗吉尼亚州的五家诊所预约堕胎的成年人（n=72）进行了电话调查。我们使用 χ 检验比较了 COVID-19 是否影响堕胎护理寻求的社会人口统计学、生殖史、服务提供特征和与大流行相关的生活变化。
大多数受访者（93%）在调查时进行了堕胎，4%正在等待预约，3%没有预约。近 40%的人报告 COVID-19 影响了他们的堕胎决定。这些人报告“经济上没有准备好”（44%比 16%）作为终止妊娠的原因的可能性明显更高，而报告 COVID-19 没有影响的人。他们也更有可能因与大流行相关的就业变化而失去或更改了健康保险（15%比 2%），因 COVID-19 报告了大量经济困难（59%比 33%），并报告支付堕胎费用“非常困难”（25%比 2%）。
COVID-19 影响了许多人堕胎，尤其是那些因疫情而处于经济劣势的人。扩大华盛顿特区和弗吉尼亚州的 Medicaid 堕胎覆盖范围可以减少医疗保健的经济障碍，并帮助人们在未来的危机中更好地满足他们的生殖需求。
