Click Here for our resource for journalists: Reporting on Abortion Later in Pregnancy

Who Not When

A people-centered resource for understanding abortions later in pregnancy.

Sometimes people need abortion care later in pregnancy.

Abortion bans that prohibit abortion care based on how far along someone is in their pregnancy cause real harm. But when abortion seekers are able to get the care they need, they and their families thrive.

People seeking abortions later in pregnancy deserve care, not judgment.

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What’s “Later?”

“Later” is a relative term. For someone seeking an abortion, it is when the gestation of a pregnancy becomes a factor in whether or how they are able to access abortion care.

41 states ban abortion at some point in pregnancy, so “later” often depends on where you live. Find out about your state’s laws.

 

Why “Who” and not “When”

People don’t always have timely information about their pregnancies. Many who seek abortion care later discover their pregnancies later (Find more info on later discovery of pregnancy here). Others find out new information later in their pregnancy that they couldn’t have known earlier.

Therefore, abortion care should not be restricted based on time.

Abortion bans don’t solve problems. Abortion bans are legal restrictions that punish healthcare professionals for providing abortion care. Bans just delay or deny abortions for people who need them. And research shows that denying someone a wanted abortion causes real harm.

Therefore, we should get rid of abortion bans altogether.

We do not live in equitable environments. Legal restrictions on abortion care have harmful, punitive effects for the people affected by them. These fall mainly on specific groups– young women, low-income women, and women of color, exacerbating existing inequities.

Therefore, we should expand care, not punish those who need it.

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Facts About Abortion Later in Pregnancy Why Later? People seek abortions later for the same reasons they do earlier. Dr. Katrina Kimport identifies two common pathways through which people find themselves seeking later abortions:1 First Path: They learn new information • Pregnancy was discovered after the 1st trimester (most common!) • Newly discovered diagnosis of a fetal impairment • Newly discovered threat to the health or life of the patient • Sudden life event or significant change in circumstances Second Path: They experience barriers to obtaining care earlier • Abortion bans and burdensome regulations • Difficulty paying for an abortion earlier • Interaction with religious Crisis Pregnancy Center (CPC) • Difficulty arranging childcare or getting time off of work • Conflicts with family and/or partner about the pregnancy • Difficulty finding or traveling to an abortion provider Who Seeks This Care Anyone who can become pregnant could need a later abortion. Because we do not live in equitable environments, some groups are more likely to need later care. These include young women, low-income women, rural women, and Black women.2.3 Abortion bans make existing inequities worse. Confidence in Abortion Decision Most people who have abortions (95%) say it was the right decision and the most common emotion reported is relief.5 “Indies” Provide Later Care Later abortion care is almost exclusively provided by independently-owned clinics: The Abortion Care Network (ACN) found that 79% of all U.S. abortion clinics that provide care after 22 weeks of pregnancy are independent clinics. After 26 weeks that number jumps to 100%. Safe Throughout Pregnancy Abortion is safer than childbirth and safer than getting your wisdom teeth removed. Abortion care is safe, and this is true at any point in pregnancy. Medically unnecessary restrictions that make abortion care harder to get don't make it safer.7 Later Care is Expensive An abortion at 20 weeks is around $2,500.3 Costs increase as the pregnancy progresses. 75% of all abortions are among low-income patients.8 Most cannot use public insurance like Medicaid to pay for an abortion due to the Hyde Amendment.9 Therefore many abortion seekers are delayed in getting care because they have to raise money. Need is Going Up Generally, abortions become increasingly rare with each week of pregnancy.10 But many people are not able to access care as soon as they would like. This has always been true, and it is getting worse. There are more obstacles for abortion seekers to overcome–more bans, fewer clinics, longer wait times, etc. These delaying factors are pushing more people later.11
 

Who gets Later Abortions and Why?

Rhetoric vs Lived Experiences: Why do people seek abortions later in pregnancy?

People seek abortions later in pregnancy for the same reasons they do earlier in pregnancy, but many are not able to access care as soon as they would like.

Dr. Katrina Kimport, a researcher at UCSF, identified two common pathways through which people find themselves seeking abortions later in pregnancy:

They learn new information that changes the course of the pregnancy:

  • Pregnancy was discovered after the 1st trimester (most common!)

  • Poor fetal diagnosis

  • Newly discovered threat to the health or life of the patient

  • Sudden life event or significant change in circumstances

They experience barriers to obtaining care as early as desired:

  • Abortion restrictions and burdensome regulations

  • Difficulty paying for an abortion earlier

  • Interaction with Crisis Pregnancy Center (CPC)

  • Childcare struggles

  • Conflicts with family and/or partner about the pregnancy

  • Difficulty finding or traveling to an abortion provider

Plenty of people fit into both categories. They may get information later in their pregnancy and then have difficulty accessing abortion care.

According to research, most later abortion patients discover their pregnancies later than earlier abortion seekers, on average, more than a month later. To learn more about later discovery of pregnancy, check out our fact sheet:

The Big Myth: A persistent misconception is that most later abortions involve a poor fetal diagnosis, but there is no data to support this. Stories featuring a poor fetal diagnosis in a “wanted” pregnancy are overrepresented in media coverage and advocacy around later abortion. This contributes to increased stigma for the many patients who do not terminate for a poor fetal diagnosis.

So what do we want?

We believe that if you’ve decided to get an abortion, you should be able to get one without delay, without judgement, and without going broke.

This will require state and federal laws that:

  • Establish statutory protections for access to abortion throughout pregnancy, without gestational/reason-based limits

  • Prohibit interference or burdensome abortion regulations imposed by any state or local government entity

  • Affirm reproductive autonomy with regard to contraception, sterilization, pregnancy, birth, and abortion

  • Ensure no person is prosecuted for the outcome of their pregnancy

  • Compel coverage of abortion by all insurance providers operating in a state, including Medicaid

What's in the Way?

Abortion Bans

Abortion bans are policies that criminalize abortion care, often based solely on the gestation of a pregnancy. These laws typically threaten medical providers with fines and penalties and result in delays and denials of medical care.

As a pregnancy progresses, the cost of abortion increases, the number of providers decreases, and more state-level restrictions go into effect. Each of these factors compounds the others and restrictions fall mainly on vulnerable populations. No ban is reasonable when someone is faced with the need to make life-altering decisions.

How are abortion bans harmful?

  • Bans Create Pressure: Drawing strict lines on abortion access can pressure pregnant individuals to make decisions before they are ready or able to gather all of the information they need to make their decisions.

  • Bans Exacerbate Inequities: When someone is unable to obtain a desired abortion, research indicates that they are worse off– more likely to live below the poverty line, stay with an abusive partner, suffer adverse health outcomes, and they are less likely to realize life plans.

  • Bans Burden Access: When someone has decided to seek an abortion, bans delay care, pushing them further into pregnancy or deny their ability to access care altogether.

“Gestational age bans, at any point in pregnancy, represent a knowing and willful use of state power to compel childbearing without regard for the consequences.”

(Megan K Donovan, Guttmacher)

Who is most affected by abortion bans?

Abortion bans have a disproportionate impact on groups that are overrepresented among later abortion seekers and abortion seekers more broadly, particularly women of color, women who are young, have limited financial resources, who have to travel farther to reach care, and who have discovered their pregnancy later. These characteristics are correlated with institutional & systemic inequity.

People who need later abortions are among the most under-resourced in our communities. We must not accept any restriction that compromises on their backs.

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Care Not Judgment

When determining whether to carry a specific pregnancy to term, every abortion seeker weighs the realities of our lives as they are.

This does not stop being true when these decisions happen later in pregnancy.

Later abortion seekers are moral decision makers and experts in our own lives. Not even our doctors have all of the information we do. And we deserve care, not judgement.

Questions? Just ask us.

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