While President Emmanuel Macron’s interview for ELLE magazine continues to be controversial, a new study reveals that the further women live from abortion centers, the less they resort to abortion.
- Since Roe v. Wade of the Supreme Court, in 1973, abortion is legal in all American states.
- In France, abortion is authorized and regulated by the vote of the Veil law in 1975.
According to a new JAMA study, the further women live from an IGV center, the less they abort. These new American data echo those of France, which has suffered for many years from medical deserts limiting, among other things, access to structures performing abortions.
“Insufficient access to abortion care”
“Is there an association between the median travel distance to an abortion center and the abortion rate?”, wondered the authors of the study in the preamble. After the health and geographic analysis of 1948 US counties, they found that increasing the median travel distance to the nearest abortion center was associated with a significant reduction in the median abortion rate (21. 1 per 1000 women of childbearing age for <5 miles; 3.9 per 1000 women of childbearing age for ≥120 miles). “Reductions in walking distances were associated with significant increases in the median abortion rate,” scientists have also found.
If abortion were integrated into primary care, the researchers estimate the number of additional abortions to be 18,190 (average rate of 11.4 per 1000 residents of childbearing age). And if telemedicine were more widely available in the USA, scientists estimate the number of additional abortions at 70,920 (average rate of 12.3 per 1000 women of childbearing age). “The results indicate which geographic areas have insufficient access to abortion care,” conclude the researchers.
Access to abortion still controversial in France
In France, the use of abortion continues to be debated, as demonstrated by the recent controversy concerning President Emmanuel Macron’s interview with ELLEor the terrible showdown that took place last February in the National Assembly about the text authorizing access to abortion up to the 14th week of pregnancy.
In its latest annual report on the use of voluntary termination of pregnancy, the Department of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics (Drees) revealed that in 2019, access to abortion is still unevenly distributed across France. Thus, when the rate of recourse to abortion is 11.8 per 1,000 women in Pays de la Loire, it reaches 22.9 per 1,000 women in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur. And while it takes on average less than six days in Pays de la Loire or Occitanie between the first appointment and the intervention, it takes 8 to 11 days in Auvergne Rhône-Alpes or in Hauts de France .
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