Medication Abortion among Asian American Pacific Islanders: Knowledge, access, and attitudes
Abortion
Awarded 2020
Increasing access to medication abortion
Sung Yeon Choimorrow, MDiv
National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum
$1,031,405

Almost no research to date has examined the abortion needs of Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs), though existing data suggest that abortion incidence among AAPI women may be relatively high. There are likely significant opportunities to increase access to medication abortion to AAPIs, but there is evidence needed to document the knowledge of, attitudes towards, beliefs about, pathways, and access to medication abortion information, support, and services. This study is grounded in the importance of recognizing the diverse range of communities often aggregated into the AAPI category and seeks to understand how people within AAPI subgroups may differ in their medication abortion knowledge, attitudes, and experiences. We propose a mixed-methods study with three arms: (1) focus group discussions with AAPI women of reproductive age who are foreign- or US-born, held in eight cities in the United States, that focus on understanding how AAPIs think and talk about medication abortion, what their access to medication abortion looks like, and what factors influence their access; (2) in-depth interviews with AAPIs across the United States who have experience using medication abortion to terminate their pregnancy/pregnancies; (3) and a nationally representative survey (with subgroup data) of AAPI women of reproductive age across the United States on knowledge of, attitudes around, and access to medication abortion. The evidence generated from this study can transform our advocacy for AAPI communities with policymakers, and help better design interventions aimed at increasing access to medication abortion among these diverse communities.