People’s ability to access healthcare and achieve positive health outcomes should not depend on who they are, but unfortunately, and all too often, it does. In the United States, this is particularly true for Black, brown, Indigenous, and low-income individuals. Abortion is healthcare, and it is just as difficult to access for disproportionally impacted people as other forms of healthcare. Liza Fuentes, Senior Research Scientist with the Guttmacher Institute, talks to us about health inequities in the current healthcare system and how abortion is unequally accessed around the country 

 

Even before Roe v. Wade was overturned, there were health inequities in abortion care, which has been true since the founding of this country. Resources that people need to decide if, when, and how to become pregnant and give birth include safe and affordable housing and communities, food and living wages, health insurance, and other elements of reproductive justice. Health disparity data exists mostly for Black, brown, Indigenous, and low-income women, AND it is important to note that anyone who cannot realize their sexual and reproductive health care—including transgender folks, non-binary folks, people living with disabilities, and young people—will then have disparate access to resources, services, and family planning care.

 

This translates into abortion restrictions. Almost 70 abortion clinics in the U.S. have closed since Dobbs overturned Roe, mostly in the South and Midwest. Thousands of people are now in a position where they have to spend thousands of dollars to leave their state, or self-manage an abortion in their state, or continue their pregnancy.  Those who are still able to get an abortion in these states include those with high incomes, with access to the most resources (including credit cards, savings account, support systems, time). What are the social identities that define the spectrum along which that money is distributed? Age, class, race, disability, immigration status, and income. The Hyde amendment, one of the most pervasive, restrictive, and disruptive amendments to abortion care, targeted low-income women outright. 

 

There are a few examples of protections post-Roe. Many governors and state legislatures—including Illinois, Oregon, New York, and Connecticut— have incorporated abortion rights at into the state constitution. Cities and counties are carving out budgets for abortion access, and even providing medication abortion in public health clinics and departments.

 

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