State Policy Restrictions on Abortion

Abstract

Although abortion remains legal and available to women, access to services is limited by restrictive factors such as parental consent and notification laws, mandatory delay requirements, insurance regulations/bans, and postviability testing requirements. This study employed a hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) with all states over a six-year period 1988-2000. It found the variable parental consent statistically significant. Consistent with its focus on social justice, social workers should be aware of and informed about social policies that appear to discriminate against oppressed populations such as young women, low-income women, and women of color.