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.

AbortionPolitics
Internet & Abortion ‘Deserts’ Are Converging, Denying Rural Women Access to Care

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.”

According to the organization‘s data, 18.4 million women live in an abortion care desert, while more than 38 million women live in a pregnancy care desert, and over 2.6 million women live in a broadband internet desert. Of these “deserts,” over 740,000 women of reproductive age live in counties considered both broadband internet deserts and abortion care deserts, and nearly 677,000 live in counties considered both broadband internet deserts and pregnancy care deserts. The majority of these counties are spread across the Midwest, but there are rural, low-income counties in states like California, Michigan, and New York as well.

“Without broadband internet, people in reproductive health care deserts with limited access to in-person abortion care and other types of pregnancy care are further unable to use telehealth visits to contact providers or to even gather health care information online,” the report warns. Consequently, they “may be forced to carry pregnancies to term and potentially deliver in areas with inadequate pregnancy care, putting their health and lives at risk.” The report stresses that Black women are at particular risk “as they already face disproportionate maternal mortality and morbidity rates.”

Abortion bans can vary across gestational limits and penalties; meanwhile, states and municipalities are constantly introducing new measures trying to police abortion-related travel. Through all the noise, abortion seekers in these states have relied on legal experts, advocates, and abortion funds disseminating clear, accurate information online—including information about how to order and access abortion pills.

That’s why the anti-abortion movement is so desperately trying to escalate its attacks on telehealth access to abortion pills. See: Louisiana’s attempts to extradite and prosecute a New York-based abortion provider who allegedly mailed pills into the state, and Texas’ civil suit to fine that same New York doctor around $100,000 for allegedly sending pills to a Texas woman. Anti-abortion organizations are even openly recruiting men in abortion-banned states like Texas to file legal actions against intimate partners who’ve had abortions—as a means to identify out-of-state abortion providers and trigger lawsuits that could potentially ban the interstate mailing of abortion pills.

Over the last couple of years, anti-abortion lawmakers have also explored avenues to prohibit internet providers from platforming online information and resources related to abortion. In November, Texas Republicans introduced the insidiously named “Women and Child Safety Act,” which would allow citizens to sue internet service providers for at least $10,000 if they host pro-abortion rights websites. The bill is remarkably similar to the federal KOSA (the Kids Online Safety Act) bill, which also claims to protect children on the internet, but could instead be used by anti-abortion attorneys-general to block online abortion information. Texas and South Carolina both introduced bills to ban internet providers from hosting websites with abortion information back in 2023, too.

The goal is to limit access to crucial information about abortion access—and consequently, limit people’s ability to order abortion pills, sometimes trapping them under state abortion bans. 

 
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