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• Posted October 10, 2024

Six-Week Abortion Bans: More Than a Third of Women Don't Know They Are Pregnant by 6 Weeks

More than a third of women don’t know they are pregnant in time to meet the six-week abortion ban active in four U.S. states, a new study finds.

About 37% of women who got an abortion in 2021 and 2022 discovered they were pregnant at six weeks or later, according to findings from the sexual and reproductive rights think-tank the Guttmacher Institute.

Further, nearly 44% of 18- and 19-year-olds found out they were pregnant at or after six weeks’ gestation, the highest proportion of any age group, researchers found.

The new study comes days after the Georgia Supreme Court restored that state’s six-week abortion ban, which had been overturned by a lower court.

Florida, Iowa and South Carolina also have implemented laws that ban abortion at six weeks, researchers noted.

“Bans at six weeks’ gestation make it particularly difficult for people to receive abortion care, in part because almost four in 10 people will not discover their pregnancy that early,” wrote the research team led by Doris Chiu, a research associate at the Guttmacher Institute. “Even then, knowing that they are pregnant far from guarantees that people can get an abortion by the six-week cutoff.”

Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, 13 states have banned abortion entirely and another eight have placed restrictions on the procedure.

For the study, the researchers analyzed data drawn from a survey of nearly 58,000 abortion patients at 54 U.S. clinics in 2021 and 2022.

The study also found that less than a quarter (24%) of women who knew they were pregnant before six weeks were able to obtain an abortion before the six-week mark passed.

“After recognizing their pregnancy, people considering abortion must also make their decision, find a provider, get funding and schedule an appointment before the six-week limit,” researchers noted.

That’s also due to the fact that the four states with six-week bans also have other restrictions that prevent timely access to abortion, like 24-hour waiting periods, researchers said.

Women who can’t make arrangements in time -- or don’t even know they’re pregnant by six weeks -- have to arrange out-of-state travel to obtain an abortion, researchers said. That can mean hundreds of miles of travel across multiple state lines.

“Six-week abortion bans are especially pernicious because they prohibit abortion before many people know they are pregnant,” the researchers wrote in a Guttmacher news release. “Uncovering information on the timing of pregnancy recognition is vital to understanding the harmful effects of abortion bans based on gestation and who is most affected by them.”

More information

The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health has more on the health effects of abortion bans.

SOURCE: The Guttmacher Institute, policy analysis, Oct. 7, 2024