New Research Shows Dramatic Decline in Access to Abortion Care
New NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts research: dramatic decline in access to abortion care. Massachusetts has had an overall decrease in the number of health care providers offering abortion services, and the remaining ones are increasingly concentrated in the Metro-Boston area. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 7, 2009 Contact: Andrea Miller, 617-556-8800 x12 New Research Shows Dramatic Decline in Access to Abortion Care Exacerbates Regional and Economic Disparities
Right to Choose Could Become "Hollow Promise"
Boston, MA – Today, NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts released new research showing that the availability of abortion care in the Commonwealth has declined dramatically since the early part of the decade. The study found that Massachusetts – like the rest of the nation – has witnessed an overall decrease in the number of health care providers offering abortion services. They are also increasingly concentrated in the Metro-Boston area – leaving women in the Southeast, Central, and Western regions with the least access to these medical services. “Massachusetts prides itself on being a leader in improving access to health care, but we’re heading in the opposite direction when it comes to meeting the needs of women as they make personal, private decisions about their pregnancies,” said Andrea Miller, Executive Director of NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts. “Without providers, the right to choose becomes but a hollow promise.” According to a NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts survey, five out-patient facilities specializing in women’s health that includes abortion care have closed since 2002 – including all of the ones on the Cape. Only Essex County saw improvement with a net gain of one, bringing the total down to a dozen statewide today. Meanwhile, only 7 of the 55 hospitals with ob/gyn services indicate that they make abortion care available to a woman facing an unintended pregnancy. As a result, nearly 125,000 Massachusetts women at risk for unintended pregnancy live in counties where these medical services are not available at all (Barnstable, Dukes, Franklin, Hampshire, Nantucket, and Plymouth). Moreover, while Massachusetts is recognized for its role in training many future physicians, there are gaps in what medical residents learn here. A review of the six ob/gyn and five family practice residency programs found that nearly half (4 family practice, 1 ob/gyn) did not offer training in abortion care. Of the remaining six that do, all but one is located in Boston.
“Clearly, even in Massachusetts, women face significant barriers to abortion care,” Miller continued. “Our elected officials have an opportunity this session to show their support for women’s private medical decisions – and the courageous physicians who care for them – by repealing the last vestiges of our anti-choice history.” NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts is calling on legislators to pass An Act Updating the Public Health Laws. Sponsored by Sen. Chandler and Rep. Story, the bill would revoke three, archaic and unconstitutional statutes that could jeopardize women’s health and well-being if they were ever enforced again, including a pre-Roe v. Wade ban on all abortions and a medically unjustified mandate that pregnancy terminations after twelve weeks take place in a hospital. At a Lobby Day yesterday, members of the 10 organizations that comprise the Coalition for Choice fanned out across Beacon Hill to urge the bill’s passage.
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