This visual representation of abortion access in the USA from The Pudding is really fantastic and informative –albeit depressing.
Since 1973, abortion has been legal (up to the third trimester of pregnancy) following the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade that asserted that pregnancy termination is part of a pregnant person’s right to privacy. Prior to Roe v. Wade, death due to unsafe, illegal abortion accounted for a significant percentage of maternal deaths. Access to safe and legal abortion dramatically reduced maternal deaths and abortion is now one of the safest surgical procedures (safer than giving birth!)
The maps that The Pudding put together (a site I’d never heard of before but I love “visual essays” so goodbye to all of my free time) are really great because they help visualize the specific barriers that people seeking abortion face both in clinic location (the above screenshot) and availability of services according to location and gestation (below screenshot).
Abortion is legal, but what is legality without access?
In the spring semester, I worked on a group project for a class about abortion access in Pennsylvania, and we plotted clinics that offer abortion services on a map. It becomes abundantly clear, when looking at the map, that the 20 or so providers are clustered in mainly urban areas. But people live in those in-between areas too! Population density is greater in those urban areas, but when you look at 2010 Census data, you can see that there are huge areas of the state where physical access is severely restricted. And these plots don’t even get into the specific restrictions each clinic may have on what types of services they offer.
As The Pudding explains, TRAP (Targeted Regulations of Abortion Providers) laws frequently limit access to abortion by instituting arbitrary rules for “safety,” but are actually medically unnecessary, political moves. It is expensive and time consuming to fight them. (If you’re interested in this – I recommend watching the documentary Trapped.)
Abortion access is an issue I care about a lot, but I think it’s really important to have these kinds of visual representations of data and access because it can succinctly and clearly translate these complicated issues. So check out the maps that The Pudding put together!
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