More than a third of women don’t know they are pregnant by six weeks

Greater than a 3rd of girls do not know they’re pregnant in time to satisfy the six-week abortion ban lively in 4 U.S. states, a brand new examine finds.

About 37% of girls who bought an abortion in 2021 and 2022 found they have been pregnant at six weeks or later, based on findings from the sexual and reproductive rights think-tank the Guttmacher Institute.

Additional, almost 44% of 18- and 19-year-olds came upon they have been pregnant at or after six weeks’ gestation, the very best proportion of any age group, researchers discovered.

The brand new examine comes days after the Georgia Supreme Court docket restored that state’s six-week abortion ban, which had been overturned by a decrease court docket.

Florida, Iowa and South Carolina even have carried out legal guidelines that ban abortion at six weeks, researchers famous.

“Bans at six weeks’ gestation make it significantly troublesome for folks to obtain abortion care, partly as a result of virtually 4 in 10 folks is not going to uncover their being pregnant that early,” wrote the analysis crew led by Doris Chiu, a analysis affiliate on the Guttmacher Institute. “Even then, figuring out that they’re pregnant removed from ensures that folks can get an abortion by the six-week cutoff.”

For the reason that U.S. Supreme Court docket overturned Roe v. Wade, 13 states have banned abortion solely and one other eight have positioned restrictions on the process.

For the examine, the researchers analyzed knowledge drawn from a survey of almost 58,000 abortion sufferers at 54 U.S. clinics in 2021 and 2022.

The examine additionally discovered that lower than 1 / 4 (24%) of girls who knew they have been pregnant earlier than six weeks have been in a position to receive an abortion earlier than the six-week mark handed.

“After recognizing their being pregnant, folks contemplating abortion should additionally make their choice, discover a supplier, get funding and schedule an appointment earlier than the six-week restrict,” researchers famous.

That is additionally resulting from the truth that the 4 states with six-week bans additionally produce other restrictions that stop well timed entry to abortion, like 24-hour ready durations, researchers stated.

Ladies who cannot make preparations in time—or do not even know they’re pregnant by six weeks—have to rearrange out-of-state journey to acquire an abortion, researchers stated. That may imply tons of of miles of journey throughout a number of state traces.

“Six-week abortion bans are particularly pernicious as a result of they prohibit abortion earlier than many individuals know they’re pregnant,” the researchers wrote in a Guttmacher information launch.

“Uncovering data on the timing of being pregnant recognition is significant to understanding the dangerous results of abortion bans primarily based on gestation and who’s most affected by them.”

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