Most Ohioans received abortion care after six weeks, study shows
Story at a glance
- A study by Ohio State University found one in four Ohioans did not know they were pregnant before six-weeks of pregnancy.
- Eighty-six percent ended up having an abortion after the six-week mark.
- The study’s results stand in stark contrast to the reality in Ohio, where the state has currently banned abortion after six-weeks of pregnancy.
An overwhelming majority of Ohio residents who sought an abortion did so after six weeks of pregnancy, in a new study that sheds light on the severe ramifications of the state’s latest abortion law.
Researchers from Ohio State University collected abortion data in 2020 and 2021 and found that one in four Ohio patients did not know they were pregnant before six-weeks of pregnancy — and 86 percent had an abortion after the six-week mark.
That stands in stark contrast to Ohio’s current abortion law, which bans abortion after cardiac activity has been detected, which typically occurs at about six-weeks gestation. The law makes no exceptions for rape or incest and allows providers to be prosecuted if they violate the law.
The Ohio State study found that among approximately 1,100 patients, 25 percent first discovered they were pregnant after six-weeks gestation; and they had significantly lower income and lower education attainment than those who detected their pregnancy before six weeks.
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Abigail Norris Turner, associate professor at Ohio State and lead author of the study, noted that many people choose to receive an abortion because of financial issues or to pursue higher education and those same factors were associated with patients not knowing they were pregnant until after six weeks– “so people in this position are trapped,” she said, in a statement.
Overall, researchers found the median gestation age of pregnancy discovery was 34 days, which is only about a week before the current Ohio law kicks in and makes abortion illegal.
“Regardless of when pregnancy is discovered, six-week bans disrupt care for nearly all patients,” said Norris Turner.
Norris Turner also pointed out that even for the Ohio patients that realize they are pregnant before six weeks, the state’s mandatory two clinic visits, 24-hour waiting period, clinic staffing shortages and high demand, they’re likely to still not get a wanted abortion before the six-week limit.
A similar situation recently played out in Ohio, when a 10-year-old rape victim was denied an abortion because she was six weeks and three days pregnant — just missing the state’s six-week ban.
“There is no public health or medical reason to have a six-week ban on abortion, and it isn’t what patients need or want. Such a ban will have lasting harmful impacts on the people who need to travel for an abortion or who are forced to carry a pregnancy to term,” said Allison Norris, associate professor at Ohio State and co-author of the study.
Researchers advised that patients should keep pregnancy tests on hand, take them early and schedule any pregnancy-related appointments as soon as possible.
Ohio’s restrictive, six-week abortion law was inspired after the Supreme Court ruled in June that abortion was not a constitutional right. Dozens of states moved to restrict the procedure and some even outright banned abortion.
Source: TEST FEED1
