Internet & Abortion ‘Deserts’ Are Converging, Denying Rural Women Access to Care
A new study explores the overlap of abortion deserts, broadband deserts, and pregnancy care deserts—and the data is alarming.
Photo: iStockphoto AbortionPolitics
Nearly three years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, new data continues to come to light about how the ruling has fundamentally transformed abortion access across the country. In December, we learned that self-managed abortion via pills mailed across state lines via telehealth accounts for about a tenth of all abortions in the U.S. But while telehealth access to abortion pills has been a lifeline for individuals living in abortion-banned states, a range of barriers can stand in the way. One such barrier? Poor internet access.
On Monday, the National Women’s Law Center published a report on the intersection of care “deserts,” where people are both far from reproductive health clinics and lack reliable internet access in their homes. The report defines abortion deserts as “counties in which the travel distance to the closest abortion care facility is greater than 100 miles,” broadband deserts as “counties in which more than half of households do not have access to broadband internet at a speed of 100/20 Mbps with any type of technology,” and pregnancy care deserts as “counties in which there are no hospitals providing obstetric care, no birth/labor, delivery and recovery/labor, delivery, postpartum, and recovery rooms, and no OBGYNs and midwives.”
“People do not live single-issue lives,” the organization states, “and this report demonstrates how the barriers women face to achieving good health are interconnected.”
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