Roe at 40: Poverty

On January 22, 2013, the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that nationally legalized abortion is 40 years old.  Because there is a lot of misinformation and disinformation surrounding one of the most politicized women’s health issues, I am sharing some of the infographics from the Guttmacher Institute in the days leading up to this landmark.

Here is the third one, focusing on the disproportionate impact of abortion restrictions on poor women.  For more information on the barriers to abortion access, see my previous post on Roe at 40.

A few points worth emphasizing:

Compared with higher income women, poor women have five times more unintended pregnancies, and five times as many abortions.

Seven in ten women would have preferred to have their abortion earlier.

Obstacles to earlier safe and legal abortion include the cost of travel to a provider, and lost wages from missing work.

Please visit the Guttmacher website for more data and information.