Utah’s 72-hour waiting period and two-visit requirement burdened women with financial costs, logistical hassles and extended periods of dwelling on decisions they had already made. However, having to wait did not appear to change women’s minds, and as a result of having to wait and make two visits, women experienced hardships, including higher costs, longer wait times, and more disclosure of their decision to have an abortion.
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This brief summarizes our study in Utah on 72-hour waiting periods, which examined women’s decision-making, costs associated with each visit, actual wait times between the information visit and the abortion, and, through follow-up interviews, captures the voices of some of the 500 women who took part in the study identifying the hardest part of waiting and of making two visits.