Women's Right to Know Act Increases Second Trimester Abortion in Georgia Público

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

About this Master's Thesis

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School	Rollins School of Public Health
Department	Health Policy and Management
Degree	MSPH
Submission	Master's Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Health Sciences, Public Health
Palavra-chave	second trimester abortion Women's Right to Know Act Georgia abortion policy WRTK
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Gaydos, Laura, Emory University
Committee Members	Kramer, Michael R, Emory University Blake, Sarah, Emory University
Partnering Agencies	Georgia state or local agency (not a health department)

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