Texas women three times more likely than women in other states to attempt DIY abortion, study finds

Amanda O'Donnell

aodonnell@statesman.com

This is a former exam room, now used for education and training purposes at ChoiceWorks (Former Whole Woman's Health Clinic) in Austin, Texas.
LAURA SKELDING/AMERICAN-STATESMAN

Texas women are three times more likely than women across the country to report having attempted to end a pregnancy themselves, a recent study has found.

6.9% of Texas women who sought an abortion at a clinic said they had attempted to end their pregnancy on their own before coming in, according to the study. Comparatively, a national survey found that only 2.2% of women across the country had ever tried to end a pregnancy on their own.

The study was led by the Texas Policy Evaluation Project at the University of Texas at Austin and published last week in the BMC Women's Health journal. It drew from surveys of women who were seeking an abortion at a Texas facility between 2012 and 2014, and interviews with women who reported a DIY abortion attempt between 2009 and 2014.

Women reported using a variety of methods in attempting a DIY abortion, including herbs, drugs from Mexico and hitting themselves or having someone else hit them in the abdomen.

The study suggests there could be several possible explanations for the higher rate of DIY abortion attempts in Texas. There's a chance that, because of Texas' proximity to Mexico, it is easier for women to obtain misoprostol, a common drug used in causing an abortion. It also suggests that Texas' large immigrant population might prove more familiar with self-managed abortions as clinical access has become increasingly restricted in Latin American countries. "A lack of money, limited transportation, and local clinic closures" were also found to be key factors in determining a woman's likelihood for attempting an abortion herself.

Aside from one woman, who said she wanted avoid protestors, none of the survey participants reported preferring a DIY abortion to a clinical abortion.

There are currently 24 abortion clinics in Texas, down from 41 that were open prior a 2013 Texas law instituting clinic restrictions, the Houston Chronicle reports. The law was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2016.