Abstract
Introduction
Abortion was legal and available at one facility in Mississippi before the June 2022 United States Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Residents’ awareness of abortion’s legality and knowledge of how to obtain an abortion – indicators of one’s ability to seek abortion care if needed – may have varied by their proximity to facility-based care.
Methods
Between September 2020 and February 2021, we used social media to recruit Mississippi residents assigned female at birth who were aged 18–45 years and not pregnant or planning pregnancy for an online survey about their reproductive healthcare access. We used multivariable-adjusted Poisson regression models with robust standard errors to assess whether residing ≥ 50 miles from an abortion facility (versus < 50 miles) was associated with three indicators that support one’s ability to seek care: awareness of legality, knowledge of a facility, and awareness of self-managed abortion in the community.
Results
Of 565 respondents, 262 lived < 50 miles and 303 lived ≥ 50 miles from a facility. Overall, 57% believed that abortion was legal in Mississippi, 26% correctly identified an abortion facility, and 29% had heard about self-managed abortion in their community. Those who lived ≥ 50 miles (vs < 50 miles) from a facility were less often aware that abortion was legal (49% versus 67%; Prevalence Ratio [PR]: 0.82, 95% CI: 0.70–0.95) and less often able to identify an abortion facility (15% versus 38%; PR: 0.52, 95% CI: 0.38–0.72). There was not a detectable difference in awareness of self-managed abortion between distance groups (32% versus 25%; p = 0.104).
Conclusions
Many Mississippians face information barriers about abortion legality and location of an abortion facility, particularly those living further from care.
Policy Implications
Following implementation of Mississippi’s law prohibiting most abortions, efforts to bridge existing and new information gaps about abortion will be needed to support residents’ reproductive autonomy.
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Availability of Data and Material
The data that support the findings of this study may be available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge Dr. Whitney Arey for her review of the manuscript before submission and Ms. Claire Gwyn for her assistance with figure development.
Funding
This study was funded by a grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and by a center grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P2CHD042849) awarded to the Population Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin. The funders played no role in study design, in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, in the writing of the report, or in the decision to submit the article for publication.
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Klaira Lerma and Kari White contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and data collection were performed by Klaira Lerma, Eva Strelitz-Block, and Kari White. Analysis was performed by Klaira Lerma, Amanda Nagle, Gracia Sierra, and Kari White. All authors contributed to the interpretation of the results. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Klaira Lerma and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Lerma, K., Nagle, A., Strelitz-Block, E. et al. Perceptions of Abortion Legality and Availability in Mississippi Before the Fall of Roe. Sex Res Soc Policy 21, 632–644 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-023-00897-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-023-00897-x