Traveling for rights
Abortion
Awarded 2016
Complex Family Planning Fellowship Research
Neha Bhardwaj, MD
University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center
$12,008

More abortion restrictions were enacted across the United States (US) between 2011-2013 than in the entire previous decade. Supporters of legislation restricting abortion access claim these laws are necessary to ensure the safety of abortion services and the health of women. However, abortion in the US is already safe. The mortality rate from 2000-2009 was 0.7 per 100,000 abortions. In comparison, the mortality associated with outpatient plastic surgery procedures was 0.8-1.7 deaths per 100,000 procedures.
Globally, restrictions to abortion access are associated with increased morbidity and mortality concomitant with a rise in unsafe and illegal abortions (4). The impact of restrictive laws is to increase women’s difficulty in accessing abortion services and to increase women’s difficulty in accessing abortion services and to decrease the number of abortion providers. 
The primary objective of this study is to compare the proportion of Texan women obtaining a first trimester abortion in New Mexico to the proportion of New Mexico women obtaining a first trimester abortion in New Mexico before and after restrictive abortion laws were passed in Texas from 2013-2014. We hypothesize that since 2012 there has been a 100% proportional increase in Texan women compared to New Mexican women obtaining a first trimester abortion in New Mexico.
The secondary objective of this study is to compare the proportion of Texan women obtaining a first trimester abortion in New Mexico to the proportion of New Mexico women obtaining a second trimester abortion in New Mexico before and after restrictive abortion laws were passed in Texas from 2013-2014. We hypothesize that since 2012 there has been a 100% proportional increase in Texan women compared to New Mexican women obtaining a second trimester abortion in New Mexico.