Women's Right to Know Act Increases Second Trimester Abortion in Georgia Open Access
Levidow, Nicole Lauren (2012)
Published
Abstract
In 2005, the Georgia state legislature passed the Women's Right to Know Act (WRTK) (HB 197 O.C.G.A. § 31-9A-1), which included mandatory counseling and a 24-hour waiting period as preconditions to abortion. We performed logistic regression analysis using ten years of Induced Termination of Pregnancy data (2000-2009) from the Georgia Department of Public Health to determine whether the implementation of WRTK is associated with a delay in the timing of abortion. We found that WRTK had a statistically significant effect in increasing the number of second trimester abortions in Georgia.
Second trimester abortions are detrimental to the health of the women due to the increased medical risks of abortion with each week of pregnancy. Risks include bleeding, infection, and infertility. For every 1,000 abortions performed after the implementation of WRTK, our research suggests that there will be an additional 14 second trimester abortions that would have previously occurred in the first trimester. The effect we observed persisted under different model specifications and is greater for minors, minority women, and those living outside of metro-Atlanta. These findings suggest that the policies implemented by the WRTK have created a more risky environment for Georgia women seeking abortion.
Table of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION...10
2. LITERATURE REVIEW...11
MANDATORY COUNSELING AND 24-HOUR WAITING
PERIOD...12
PARENTAL NOTIFICATION...12
MEDICAL RISKS...13
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK...14
RESEARCH QUESTION AND HYPOTHESIS...15
3. METHODOLOGY...15
DATASET...15
DEPENDENT VARIABLE...16
KEY INDEPENDENT VARIABLE...16
DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES...17
GEOGRAPHIC VARIABLES...18
DATA ANALYSIS...18
4. RESULTS...19
DESCRIPTIVE...19
BIVARIATE ANALYSIS RESULTS: FIRST VS SECOND TRIMESTER...22
5. DISCUSSION...24
SUMMARY...24
LIMITATIONS...25
FUTURE RESEARCH...26
6. CONCLUSION...28
REFERENCES...29
APPENDIX...32
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