This is the first of two posts on the topic of the market for second trimester abortions. Later on in the week we will talk about the impact of government policies on the supply side of that market. Before we do that, I want to start with a discussion of the economic factors that are contributing to the demand for late abortions in the United States.

The U.S. is one of very few industrialized nations in which it is possible for a woman to have an abortion in the second trimester of pregnancy for reasons other than medical necessity. Without going into why that is the case from a legal perspective, there are economic factors that suggest that even if all countries allowed second trimester abortions, there would still be higher demand for them in the U.S. than in other wealthy nations.

Keeping this international comparison in mind, the following is a list of several examples, rather than an exhaustive list, of economic factors that influence the demand side of the market for abortions after the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Price:

Imagine that a woman who has just discovered that she is almost five weeks pregnant (which is the length of time, measured from the date of her last period, that it takes women, on average, to make this discovery). She decides immediately that she wants to terminate the pregnancy, but has no savings or access to credit (which is a very realistic assumption to make for low-income earners) and, on top of that, is unable to ask family and friends for help because knows that they will not support her decision.

The average cost of an abortion in the U.S. varies from $451 (if done at 10 weeks gestation) up to $1,500 (at 20 weeks gestation). In thirty-two states in the U.S., there is no financial assistance available to low-income women who want to have an abortion for reasons other than life-threatening medical problems or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. If our woman happens to be unlucky enough to live in a state that does not help low-income women pay for abortions, she has no choice but to save enough of her earning to pay for that procedure.

Now, imagine that she is earning the federal minimum wage of $7.25 and working 40 hours a week. That gives her a take home pay of $290 under the very unrealistic assumption that she has no deductions from her paycheck. The federal poverty limit says that a woman with no children needs $208 per week in income to pay for the basic necessities of life. If she is capable of saving almost 30% of her wages -- $80 per week -- then it will take her about 6 weeks to save enough money for the procedure.

With any luck, by the time she gets her last paycheck she can just make the cut-off for a first trimester abortion.

Now, consider this: 42% of women having abortions live on an income that falls below the federal poverty level – they are making less than the $208 per week needed to pay for the basic necessities of life – and 53% of women having abortions between weeks 16 and 20 gestation are women in this low income bracket.

Among women who both had second trimester abortions, and would have preferred to have one earlier in the pregnancy, 36% said the delay was caused by a need to raise the enough money to pay for the procedure.  

The U.S. isn’t the only nation that makes women pay for abortions, but it is the only one, that I know of, in which abortions for low-income women go unsubsidized by governments.