Waiting Period Laws
What are Waiting Period Laws?
A map showing where waiting period laws are in place, and how long women must wait before getting the procedure.
Waiting period laws insist on a fixed, compulsory waiting period before abortions or sterilizations are carried out.[1] These waiting periods are time-periods designed for a person to work through their decision-making process, without external pressure, before committing to a final decision.[2] Enforced waiting periods are not flexible, not tailored to individual needs, and keep people waiting who do not need extra time.[3] These laws, which are effective in 14 U.S. states, often result in an extra appointment being needed, delays in getting a procedure, and personal distress for the applicant. This can result in women being beyond the gestational limit for abortion. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that requiring women to make a separate trip to an abortion clinic to receive state-mandated information prevents between 10 and 13 percent of women from getting the abortions they seek.[4]
Waiting period laws are usually associated with paternalistic influence. The declared paternalistic argument is that these periods help women make a more reasonable decision about their unwanted pregnancy and not make a “rash” decision they will later regret.[5] However, a study showed that only about 1% of women regretted their abortion 5 years later.[6] Additionally, a study by Ashton reported that a majority of women decided to have an abortion shortly after discovering that they were pregnant, suggesting that the decision-making process is quite quick.[7] Since the decision-making process is so quick, it can mean that talking to a healthcare practitioner occurs after the decision has been made.[8] Since the decision to have an abortion has already been made, these mandatory waiting periods are not necessary for a majority of women, and they can correspondingly cause an increase in expenses and an increase in anxiety for the women.
Abortion rights activists rally outside the Supreme Court.
How do they affect low-income women and women of color?
Waiting periods cause delays in accessing abortion, and low-income women tended to be impacted more than those who are better off. Because the cost of abortion rises dramatically as the pregnancy advances, waiting periods put abortion out of reach for many women.[9] First trimester abortions usually cost between $350 and $500, but a second-trimester abortion can cost up to $1000 or more.[10] Most clinics do not perform second trimester abortions at all, so women must either take on the burden of travelling, often out of state, or they must resort to a hospital, where an abortion costs thousands of dollars.[11] Additionally, abortions at higher gestations have greater morbidity and mortality. Unintended pregnancy rates are highest among Black women, Hispanic women, and women of lower socioeconomic status, comprising the same groups with the highest abortion rates.[12]
A study in Tennessee reported that during the waiting period, the women suffered from nausea/vomiting, mental anguish, stress, and incurred extra childcare and transport costs from extra trips to the facility[13]. Reported difficulties included time off work with loss of income, time taken and logistics of travelling, childcare needed, and loss of privacy for those that were keeping the abortion a secret[14].
References:
[1] Rowlands, Sam, and Kevin Thomas. "Mandatory Waiting Periods Before Abortion and Sterilization: Theory and Practice." International Journal of Womens Health Volume 12 (July 31, 2020): 577-86. doi:10.2147/ijwh.s257178.
[2], [3] Rowlands and Thomas, “Mandatory Waiting Periods.”
[4] "Government-Mandated Delays Before Abortion." American Civil Liberties Union. 2020. Accessed December 07, 2020. https://www.aclu.org/other/government-mandated-delays-abortion
[5], [6], [7], [8] Rowlands and Thomas, “Mandatory Waiting Periods.”
[9], [10], [11] “Government-Mandated Delays.”
[12] Verma, Nisha, and Scott A. Shainker. "Maternal Mortality, Abortion Access, and Optimizing Care in an Increasingly Restrictive United States: A Review of the Current Climate." Seminars in Perinatology 44, no. 5 (2020): 151269. doi:10.1016/j.semperi.2020.151269.
[13], [14] Rowlands and Thomas, “Mandatory Waiting Periods.”