The Hoosier Abortion Access Study: Clinician and patient perspectives on abortion-related laws
Ibis Reproductive Health. September 2022.
Indiana had some of the most restrictive abortion policies in the United States prior to the Supreme Court's opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization. These policies included a mandatory 18-hour waiting period between the first appointment for counseling and the second appointment for the abortion; state-directed, in-person counseling with medically inaccurate information; severe restrictions on insurance coverage of abortion; parental consent requirements for minors; and more. Abortion staff and clinics also had to navigate laws that dictated how they provide care, such as physician-only provision of abortion, despite research showing other cadres of clinicians can provide this care; banning certain abortion methods and modes of delivery, including telemedicine for medication abortion; requirements for hospital admitting privileges; and even laws about the width of facility hallways.
Many of these restrictions were put forward in the name of protecting abortion patients—yet the public health evidence does not support this link. Before Indiana enacted legislation banning abortion with limited exceptions in the wake of the Dobbs ruling, we conducted a study to understand how state policies were perceived and felt by both clinicians and patients in Indiana.