In their latest attempt to roll back abortion access, conservatives have seized on later abortions as a moral outrage. The only problem? New research suggests restrictions on abortion actually push women to get them later in pregnancy.
A new study from the Texas Policy Evaluation Project found that the number of second-trimester abortions in Texas increased after implementation of a restrictive abortion law in 2013—even as the number of abortions overall decreased. On average, patients received abortion care one week later following the implementation of the law.
The finding suggests that restrictions on abortion have the opposite effect of what many conservatives say they want, lead author Kari White told The Daily Beast.
“What we think this study points to is that when you have this layering of [restrictions] that contract the number of services and available providers, that a consequence of that is that women will be having procedures later in pregnancy,” said White, a professor at the University of Alabama, Birmingham.
Later abortions became a point of conservative outrage after two state legislatures introduced bills making the procedure slightly easier […]