Choice Action Team Hosts Guest Speaker, Researcher Bayla Ostrach
On October 7, The Choice Action Team (CAT) hosted Bayla Ostrach, a master's student at OSU in medical anthropology, who gave a fascinating presentation titled “Social Inequality and Reproductive Health: Barriers to Abortion Care for Oregon Women.” Topics included the socioeconomic, logistical, and social barriers to abortion access faced by Oregon women, and Bayla shared the preliminary findings of her research based on surveys and interviews with women. She also discussed how women's perceptions of barriers influence their abortion experiences. The evening included a lively discussion, and even the most seasoned volunteers attending commented on how much they'd learned. The following explains Bayla's research in her own words.
Social Inequality and Reproductive Health: Barriers to Abortion Care for Oregon Women ABSTRACT: Barriers to abortion care can be socioeconomic, logistical, social, or a combination of all three. Social inequality and socioeconomic status significantly influence women's access to abortion care, as well as their perceptions and experiences of abortion. Research shows that women of lower socioeconomic status may be more dramatically affected by barriers to access. By collecting demographic data, analyzing anonymous patient surveys about perceived barriers, and recruiting participants for interviews, I hope to gather information and narratives in order to observe any trends that may help to explain the lived experiences of Oregon women who seek abortion care. Moreover, I will analyze women's perceptions of barriers to abortion access in the context of social inequalities which seem to impact women's abortion experiences differently. This political-economic approach to the issue of abortion access fits within a larger context of studying access to healthcare from a critical perspective. My research examines the following questions: 1) What barriers to access do women encounter when attempting to obtain abortion services? Economic barriers? Logistical barriers? Social barriers? 2) How do women describe the barriers they encounter while seeking out and receiving services? 3) How do women's perceptions of barriers influence their abortion experiences?
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