Abortion Bans Are Making It Harder For Some People to Find Basic Health Care

Abortion bans and restrictions are disproportionately hurting LGBTQ+ people — making it harder for them to access a wide range of care compared to non-LGBTQ+ people.

A new survey from the Center for American Progress, published Thursday and shared exclusively with HuffPost, found that the abortion bans passed since the fall of Roe v. Wade have created huge health care disparities. CAP looked at a nationally representative sample of around 3,300 people, around half of whom identified as LGBTQ+ and half as non-LGBTQ+.

The report found that LGBTQ+ people are twice as likely to struggle to find a new medical provider if their clinic shuts down compared to non-LGBTQ+ folks. More than one-third of transgender people said it would be “very difficult” or simply “not possible” to find a new provider. The fact that LGBTQ+ folks are struggling to find medical care after abortion bans is a clear indicator that abortion providers were also providing health care for LGBTQ+ communities.

Dozens of abortion clinics closed shortly after the Supreme Court decision that repealed Roe v. Wade. In addition to abortion and miscarriage care, many clinics also offered gender-affirming care and other basic sexual and reproductive health services like cancer screenings and sexually transmitted infection testing and prevention.

“We know that LGBT folks are more likely to avoid going to the doctor, both for preventative care like breast cancer screenings and needed care, like if they break an ankle,” Caleb Smith, author of the report and director of LGBTQI+ policy at CAP, told HuffPost. “They’re less likely to go both because of cost issues and … because they can’t find a provider that is treating them with basic dignity and respect. And we’re not just talking about gender-affirming care, we’re talking about all forms of medical care.”

Another important takeaway of the report is that 11% of LGBTQ+ people have decided not to have children because of abortion bans, compared to 2% of non-LGBTQ+ people. Smith said CAP has anecdotally heard that LGBTQ+ people are scared to have kids, even if they do want children.

“This is a really important data point to show that actually, bans on abortion are decreasing the desire for folks to have families,” Smith said. “And people who support bans on abortion are trying to paint these [policies] as pro-family, and this is a really, really clear indicator that the opposite is actually true.”

People in the LGBTQ+ community found it harder to obtain abortion services than non-LGBTQ+ people, CAP found. One percent of non-LGBTQ+ people who wanted to obtain abortion services were unable to do so, while 5% of LGBTQ+ adults and 7% of disabled LGBTQ+ adults reportedly were unable to receive abortion care.

CAP also found that LGBTQ+ people are more likely to have to travel out of state to access abortion or reproductive health services compared to non-LGBTQ+ people. Black LGBTQ+ people were the group most likely to have to travel out of their state to receive care.

“It’s really important to note that our reproductive equity and our LGBT equity movements are so interconnected,” Smith said. “The attacks on gender-affirming care, the attacks on LGBT rights are about bodily autonomy in the same way that anti-choice efforts are attacks on our bodily autonomy.”

“All of this is from the same toolbox, and all of this is about dismantling body autonomy,” Smith added. “It’s really clear who’s getting hurt the most, and it’s marginalized communities.”

Read the full report from the Center for American Progress here.