Contraception and Abortion in American Women of
Low Socioeconomic and Minority Status For a nation as advanced, educated, and teeming with resources as the United States, the accessibility gap to reproductive healthcare might suggest we live in a much less progressive society. The growing trend is such that this disadvantage rests with women who experience either a socioeconomic disadvantage or hold a racial or ethnic minority status. Major reproductive health disparities include a lack of sexual education (both family- and school-based) and both inadequate access to and ambivalence toward abortion and effective contraception. This paper will review the current contributors to contraceptive and abortion use for disadvantaged American women, …show more content…
According to Guzzo and Hayford, 2012, pregnancy fatalism is a very real factor for Black women that, at its core, includes a belief that it is futile to try to control when one gets pregnant. There is also an overestimated worry about the efficacy and side effects of using birth control, particularly of the hormonal variety. A 2008 study by Venkat et al. reveals that Hispanic women overrate the negative outcomes of contraceptive use, particularly the oral pill method. Only 56% of Latina respondents agreed that the oral birth control pill works in preventing pregnancy. A separate study cited by Venkat had shown that 90% of women educated at Brown University correctly estimated the efficacy of oral birth control, which has a 91% success rate (CDC, n.d.). According to Guzzo and Hayford, 2012, Black women may also overestimate the tendency of hormonal birth control to lead to a decline in sexual drive or other negative health …show more content…
Education is certainly needed at the patient level, with more emphasis going toward teaching the accurate effects and outcomes of birth control. However, education is also necessary at the policy-maker level. Until those that draft and pass our laws understand the ramifications of policies that both restrict birth control and abortion access and make those resources financially inaccessible, lower level changes will be difficult and certain demographics of women will continue to have detrimental or discriminatory healthcare
Low Socioeconomic and Minority Status For a nation as advanced, educated, and teeming with resources as the United States, the accessibility gap to reproductive healthcare might suggest we live in a much less progressive society. The growing trend is such that this disadvantage rests with women who experience either a socioeconomic disadvantage or hold a racial or ethnic minority status. Major reproductive health disparities include a lack of sexual education (both family- and school-based) and both inadequate access to and ambivalence toward abortion and effective contraception. This paper will review the current contributors to contraceptive and abortion use for disadvantaged American women, …show more content…
According to Guzzo and Hayford, 2012, pregnancy fatalism is a very real factor for Black women that, at its core, includes a belief that it is futile to try to control when one gets pregnant. There is also an overestimated worry about the efficacy and side effects of using birth control, particularly of the hormonal variety. A 2008 study by Venkat et al. reveals that Hispanic women overrate the negative outcomes of contraceptive use, particularly the oral pill method. Only 56% of Latina respondents agreed that the oral birth control pill works in preventing pregnancy. A separate study cited by Venkat had shown that 90% of women educated at Brown University correctly estimated the efficacy of oral birth control, which has a 91% success rate (CDC, n.d.). According to Guzzo and Hayford, 2012, Black women may also overestimate the tendency of hormonal birth control to lead to a decline in sexual drive or other negative health …show more content…
Education is certainly needed at the patient level, with more emphasis going toward teaching the accurate effects and outcomes of birth control. However, education is also necessary at the policy-maker level. Until those that draft and pass our laws understand the ramifications of policies that both restrict birth control and abortion access and make those resources financially inaccessible, lower level changes will be difficult and certain demographics of women will continue to have detrimental or discriminatory healthcare