Abortion rights opponents point to racial/ethnic differences in abortion rates as evidence of racism and coercion among those who support the right to obtain abortions.
3,4 Not only do these messages explicitly blame those providing abortion for targeting communities of color, they also assign guilt to women of color who decide to have abortions by implying that they are falling victim to a racist conspiracy. Differences in abortion rates by income are also seen as evidence of exploitation by abortion providers, who are claimed to be aggressively profiting from public funding of abortion for low-income women.
5 Although there is no evidence of racial targeting
6 or routine profiteering by abortion providers, from the perspective of those who espouse these views, the problem of disparities in abortion rates can only be solved by limiting access to and utilization of abortion services.
Motivated by a concern that this politicized perspective on disparities in abortion rates fails to consider their actual underlying causes, and thus will not ultimately lead to meaningful policy or programmatic outcomes, we review what is known about the origins of disparities in abortion rates by both race/ethnicity and SES. We discuss what can be done to address the root causes of these disparities in abortion, as well as to minimize their negative effects