Pregnant Women's Reasons for and Experiences of Visiting Antiabortion Pregnancy Resource Centers
- 27 February 2020
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Guttmacher Institute in Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health
- Vol. 52 (1), 49-56
- https://doi.org/10.1363/psrh.12131
Abstract
CONTEXT The primary mission of pregnancy resource centers is to dissuade women from choosing abortion. Reproductive health and rights advocates have asserted that these centers interfere in abortion decision making. However, the reasons pregnant women go to such centers and what they experience while there have not been examined. METHODS Between June 2015 and June 2017, in‐depth, semistructured phone interviews were conducted with 21 pregnant women who had presented at prenatal care clinics in southern Louisiana and Baltimore, Maryland, and who had visited a pregnancy resource center. Topics covered in the interviews included reasons for visiting a center and the experience of the visit. Transcripts were analyzed first thematically and then using grounded theory. RESULTS Most of the women were low income and had not been considering abortion when they visited a pregnancy resource center. Respondents reported that they had gone to these centers for pregnancy‐related services, material goods and social support. They chose these centers because the resources were free, and they were largely satisfied with their experiences. Nonetheless, their receipt of services and goods was limited and often contingent on participation in the centers’ activities. CONCLUSIONS Pregnancy resource centers play a role in meeting the acute material and social needs of low‐income pregnant women. However, the constraints on the resources the centers offer mean that this support cannot be part of a reliable system of care. Advocates and policymakers should take a nuanced approach to regulating these centers and consider the reasons women visit them, especially low‐income women.Keywords
This publication has 22 references indexed in Scilit:
- Crisis pregnancy center websites: Information, misinformation and disinformationContraception, 2014
- Evangelical UnderdogsJournal of Contemporary Ethnography, 2014
- Abortion Incidence and Service Availability In the United States, 2011Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 2014
- The spread of ‘Post Abortion Syndrome’ as social diagnosisSocial Science & Medicine (1982), 2014
- Crisis Pregnancy Centers, Poverty, and the Expanding Frontiers of American Abortion PoliticsPolitics & Policy, 2013
- Now I see it, now I don’t: researcher’s position and reflexivity in qualitative researchQualitative Research, 2013
- Abortion misinformation from crisis pregnancy centers in North CarolinaContraception, 2012
- In the Name of the Mother: Renegotiating Conservative Women’s Authority in the Crisis Pregnancy Center MovementSigns: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 2012
- The Public Health Risks of Crisis Pregnancy CentersPerspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 2012
- Intersections of Ethnicity and Social Class in Provider Advice Regarding Reproductive HealthAmerican Journal of Public Health, 2007