Assessing psychosocial costs: Ohio patients? experiences seeking abortion care

Objectives: Existing research has not thoroughly characterized the psychosocial costs associated with seeking abortion care in restrictive states. Our study seeks to fill this gap by analyzing the accounts of Ohio abortion patients from 2018 to 2019.Study design: Using inductive and deductive approaches, we analyzed semi-structured in-depth qualita-tive interviews with 41 Ohio residents who obtained abortion care from one of three clinics in Ohio or Pennsylvania.Results: Ohioans seeking abortion care often experienced fear of judgment, interpersonal strain, and stress as a result of efforts to overcome pre-Dobbs financial, geographic, and timing challenges. Those who needed financial assistance or traveled more than an hour generally reported greater exposure to psychosocial costs. Conclusions: Participants in this study incurred a complex set of psychosocial costs. Psychosocial costs often resulted from, or were exacerbated by, the financial, geographic, and time-sensitive burdens that patients experienced seeking care. Implications: The psychosocial costs incurred by patients seeking abortion care may be exacerbated in restrictive contexts, especially those who do not have access to insurance coverage for care. Psychoso-cial costs associated with care seeking are likely to increase as states implement more severe restrictions post-Dobbs. To fully understand abortion costs, researchers must examine costs comprehensively, includ-ing both financial and psychosocial costs.(c) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Automated summary

This study analyzed the experiences of abortion patients in Ohio from 2018 to 2019, finding that seeking abortion care in restrictive states resulted in psychosocial costs. Patients faced fear of judgment, interpersonal strain, and stress due to financial, geographic, and timing challenges. The psychosocial costs were higher for those who needed financial assistance or traveled long distances.