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Using Google Ads to Study Abortion Access Among Pregnant People Searching Online for Abortion

A screenshot of the first page of the Google Ads study issue brief

To better understand barriers to abortion care in the U.S., we surveyed people searching for abortion care online through Google ads and followed-up with them 4 weeks later to learn whether they had obtained an abortion. The key findings obtained from this study led to several papers, each addressing a different research question. We found that restrictive state-level abortion policies are associated with not having an abortion at all, lack of insurance coverage for abortion is associated with prolonged abortion seeking, waiting period laws and 2-visit requirements are not significantly associated with increased decision certainty, CPC visits are associated with prolonged abortion seeking, and incidence of attempted self-managed abortion is higher among people facing barriers to abortion care.

This brief summarizes our methods and findings from The Google Ads Abortion Access Study. The research illustrates how state-level abortion policies and barriers impact an individual’s ability to obtain a wanted abortion.