Research brief: The impact of out-of-pocket costs on abortion care access

The decision to have a child has significant implications for a woman’s financial well-being, educational attainment, and workforce participation. Access to affordable, comprehensive reproductive health care services, inclusive of abortion care, ensures that women and their families, regardless of financial and insurance status, can make this decision when they are ready.

For this report, we reviewed published literature, papers under submission, and other publicly available information on the costs of abortion care to document: the current OOP cost landscape for abortion in the United States; factors contributing to OOP costs for abortion services at the policy, health care provider, and individual level the impact of OOP expenses on US women’s abortion access; and public health and policy strategies that would move us towards reducing OOP costs for abortion care

Our findings suggest that OOP costs play a fundamental role, one that is often underestimated, in the discussion of abortion access in the United States.