Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
National Abortion Federation Canada, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
Perspect Sex Reprod Health. 2023 Sep;55(3):192-199. doi: 10.1363/psrh.12239. Epub 2023 Jul 24.
Both the National Abortion Federation Canada and Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights operate national toll-free hotlines that provide information, financial support, and travel assistance to abortion seekers. We aimed to characterize callers to both hotlines before and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hotline personnel routinely document information about callers and type(s) of assistance needed and received. We received call logs from both organizations for a two-year period (April 1, 2019 through March 31, 2021). We exported these data to Microsoft Excel® and analyzed them using descriptive statistics. We analyzed case notes for content and themes.
Over the study period, the two hotlines worked with 270 unique callers. Nearly two-thirds of callers (n = 174) were seeking support to obtain abortion care for pregnancies after 14 weeks gestation, including 69 callers (26%) who were at or beyond 24 weeks gestation. Most callers were seeking support to obtain abortion care outside of their province of residence because services at their gestational age were not available. Caller needs were similar before and after the onset of the pandemic, but fewer traveled to the United States for abortion care in the COVID-19 era.
Assistance hotlines play an important role in helping some abortion seekers navigate the Canadian health system to obtain needed abortion care. The needs of those seeking care after the 14 weeks gestation points to gaps in current service availability. Identifying ways to expand later abortion care in Canada, particularly after 24 weeks, appears warranted.
加拿大国家堕胎联合会和加拿大性健康和权利行动组织均设有全国免费热线，为堕胎寻求者提供信息、经济支持和旅行援助。我们旨在描述 COVID-19 大流行前后这两个热线的来电者特征。
热线工作人员通常会记录来电者的信息以及所需和已获得的援助类型。我们从这两个组织收到了为期两年（2019 年 4 月 1 日至 2021 年 3 月 31 日）的热线通话记录。我们将这些数据导出到 Microsoft Excel® 中，并使用描述性统计进行分析。我们对案例记录进行了内容和主题分析。
在研究期间，这两个热线与 270 位独特的来电者合作。近三分之二的来电者（n=174）寻求支持以获得妊娠 14 周后堕胎护理，其中 69 位来电者（26%）处于或超过 24 周妊娠。大多数来电者寻求在其居住地以外的省份获得堕胎护理，因为在其妊娠年龄阶段无法获得相关服务。来电者的需求在大流行前后相似，但在 COVID-19 时代，前往美国进行堕胎护理的人数减少。
援助热线在帮助一些堕胎寻求者在加拿大卫生系统中寻求所需的堕胎护理方面发挥了重要作用。那些寻求 14 周后堕胎护理的人的需求突显了当前服务可用性方面的差距。看来有必要寻找在加拿大扩大后期堕胎护理的方法，特别是在 24 周后。
