ANSIRH News

Women with Medicaid funding for abortion are more likely to adopt a method of contraception on the day of an abortion

Adopting a form of contraception just after having an abortion is considered safe for most women. In a new study titled, “Role of Insurance Coverage in Contraceptive Use after Abortion,” published in Obstetrics and Gynecology, we found that women with access to Medicaid-funded abortions are nearly four times as likely to adopt a contraceptive method on the day of the procedure as women who self-pay for their procedure.

A 21st-Century Public Health Approach to Abortion

A 21st-Century Public Health Approach to Abortion. ANSIRH’s Sarah Roberts and Nancy Berglas, along with Liza Fuentes of the Guttmacher Institute and Amanda Dennis of the Society of Family Planning, published a commentary in the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH). They applied an accepted public health framework, the CDC’s 10 Essential Public Health Services, to describe how health departments should engage with abortion.

They point out the importance of involving public health professionals in decisions about how health departments should engage with abortion. They argue that health departments should: facilitate women’s ability to obtain an abortion and promote the use of a scientific evidence base in abortion-related laws, 

Reporters experience multiple challenges when reporting on abortion

The study, a collaboration between ANSIRH and The Sea Change Program found that reporters experience multiple challenges when reporting on abortion, including struggling to maintain neutrality, finding new angles, connecting with new sources, facing harassment, and needing to educate editors on abortion.

Abortion and Insurance: More than the Hyde Amendment

Although there has been increasing attention paid to legal prohibitions on public and private insurance coverage for abortion, policies like the Hyde Amendment are only part of the reason accepting insurance in abortion care is complicated. Insurer practices, such as high deductibles in private insurance plans that exceed the cost of abortion and the low reimbursement rate of Medicaid, also influence whether abortion-providing facilities can accept insurance and still keep their doors open.