FACTORS HINDERING ACCESS TO ABORTION SERVICES

Although abortion services are readily available in large urban areas to those able to pay, a 1993 survey of U.S. abortion providers shows t hat access to service is still problematic for many women because of b arriers related to distance, gestation limits, costs and harassment. A mong women who have nonhospital abortions, an estimated 24% travel at least 50 miles from their home to the abortion facility. Although 98% of providers will perform abortions at eight weeks after the last mens trual period, only 48% will perform abortions at 13 weeks and 13% at 2 1 weeks. Half of nonhospital abortion providers estimate that more tha n four days elapse on average between their patients' first telephone contact and the date of the procedure; one in seven say that more than one week elapses. Most women are able to obtain abortion services in one visit to a clinic. The average woman having a first-trimester nonh ospital abortion with local anesthesia paid $296 for the procedure in 1993, up from $251 in 1989. On average, nonhospital facilities charged $604 at 16 weeks of gestation and $1,067 at 20 weeks. Eighty-six perc ent of nonhospital facilities providing 400 or more abortions in 1992 were the targets of antiabortion harassment. Picketing at facilities a nd the homes of staff members, vandalism and chemical attacks increase d significantly between 1988 and 1992, but the incidence of bomb threa ts decreased.