Academic publications on the impacts of Texas HB2 on abortion-related behaviors

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There have been several journal articles published on the effects of HB2 on abortion-seeking behaviors in Texas. In general, they have been conducted by pro-abortion researchers, which is pretty typical for the literature. The pro-life side doesn’t publish much.

One study, Gerdts et al. (May 2016, American Journal of Public Health) interviewed women seeking abortions at clinics in Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio. Funded by the Buffett Foundation and an NIH grant. Here is the abstract, since I think the article is behind a pay wall:

Objectives. To evaluate the additional burdens experienced by Texas abortion patients whose nearest in-state clinic was one of more than half of facilities providing abortion that had closed after the introduction of House Bill 2 in 2013.

Methods. In mid-2014, we surveyed Texas-resident women seeking abortions in 10 Texas facilities (n= 398), including both Planned Parenthood–affiliated clinics and independent providers that performed more than 1500 abortions in 2013 and provided procedures up to a gestational age of at least 14 weeks from last menstrual period. We compared indicators of burden for women whose nearest clinic in 2013 closed and those whose nearest clinic remained open.

Results. For women whose nearest clinic closed (38%), the mean one-way distance traveled was 85 miles, compared with 22 miles for women whose nearest clinic remained open (P <= .001). After adjustment, more women whose nearest clinic closed traveled more than 50 miles (44% vs 10%),had out-of-pocket expenses greater than $100(32% vs 20%), had a frustrated demand for medication abortion (37% vs 22%), and reported that it was somewhat or very hard to get to the clinic (36% vs 18%; P < .05).

Conclusions. Clinic closures after House Bill 2 resulted in significant burdens for
women able to obtain care.(Am J Public Health. 2016;106:857–864. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2016.303134)

Here’s a link to the other study, which was a qualitative research study among women who had reported attempting to self-induce abortion while living in Texas. Here’s the link:
liberalarts.utexas.edu/txpep/_files/pdf/TxPEP-Research-Brief-WomensExperiences.pdf

Among the 18 women interviewed, 10 used Cytotec (misoprostol), 6 used “herb, tea, or vitamin” and 2 used “other medication.” Worth a further read.