roe at 40: the economic divide that denies low-income women their right to an abortion

[niyad]

'Roe' at 40: The Economic Divide That Denies Low-Income Women Their Right to an Abortion
by Bryce Covert

Happy fortieth, Roe! They say 40 is the new 20. And that might be fitting, because four decades later to the day it feels like in many ways we’ve moved back in time. While access to abortion is still in theory a right every woman in this country enjoys, an economic chasm has yawned between the well-off and the poor.

The Guttmacher Institute has some enlightening, if disheartening, infographics to celebrate the anniversary. As the first demonstrates, low-income women are the majority of those who seek abortions:



Their abortion rates are five times those of wealthier women. Yet it may be hardest for them to get the services they need. The average cost of a first-term abortion is $470, and many women are paying for that out of pocket:



A third of all abortion patients don’t have any health insurance to help defray the cost. Even so, most women don’t use insurance anyway – almost 60 percent pay out of pocket. Only about 20 percent use Medicaid, since those funds are prohibited from financing an abortion unless it results from rape, incest or endangers the life of the mother. Some states go even further in restricting its use, while only seventeen use their own funds to patch that hole for low-income women on Medicaid in need of an abortion.

But payment is only one piece of the puzzle. As the Nation editors recently noted, “87 percent of US counties lack an abortion provider, and several states have only a clinic or two staffed by a doctor who flies in from another state.” Thirty-five percent of all the country’s women live in those counties that don’t have a provider:



. . . .

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/01/22-11

[mountain grammy]

1. All communities have "abortion providers" for women of means

A woman who has money can always go to her private physician. My OB/GYN performed a D&C on me in her office when an unexpected pregnancy threatened my health, but she would have done the same for any reason. It was totally my decision. I was lucky to have insurance.
"Abortion providers" and "abortion clinics" are terms the anti choice people have put in place to punish and stigmatize poor women for far too long and I'm sick of it. Women need to have the right to visit a doctor or clinic without the rest of the world knowing her business. This is a woman's personal decision, and she should be able to go to the damn doctors' office or a clinic without a bunch of "Christians" screaming and waving signs and pictures in her face. No one outside that doctors' office has the right to know why a woman is there. It's simply nobody else's business, period.
Do you think abortion laws apply to everyone? The wealthy could always get an abortion. If the OB/GYN won't provide, just jet off to another country.. problem solved.

[niyad]

2. would you consider posting this as its own thread? I want to recommend it.

[mountain grammy]

3. Really? sure.

[mountain grammy]

4. not sure how to do that,never have.