Increasing Access to Abortion

Legal and accessible abortion care is a necessary component of comprehensive health care. Access to abortion is threatened by local, state, and federal government restrictions; limitations on insurance coverage of abortion care; restrictions on funding for training; restrictions imposed by hospitals and health care systems; stigma; violence against health care professionals who provide abortion care; and a subsequent dearth of health care professionals who provide this care. Since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision, the abortion landscape is an ever-changing and shifting map of abortion restrictions and protections based on state-level interpretations and definitions of abortion care. This is confusing and chilling to both patients and health care professionals, who must learn to navigate a web of conflicting and varying state laws. Legislative restrictions fundamentally interfere with the patient-health care professional relationship and decrease access to abortion, particularly for individuals with low incomes and those living long distances from health care professionals. This Committee Statement continues the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' previous calls for advocacy to oppose and overturn restrictions, to improve access, and to affirm abortion as an essential component of health care.