Impact of COVID-19 on abortion method under ten weeks gestational age in Southern California.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

We assessed the proportion of medication versus suction aspiration abortions before and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in a health system that did not limit access to abortion.

Study design

We conducted an interrupted time series analysis among patients having an abortion at 10 weeks gestation or less at Planned Parenthood health centers in San Diego, Imperial, and Riverside Counties in California. Centers required in-person follow up for medication abortion throughout the pandemic. We compared the nine months prior to the pandemic (June 2019 to February 2020) to the first nine months of the pandemic (April 2020 to December 2020), with March 2020 as a washout period.

Results

There was an average monthly increase of 0.78% in the proportion of medica

SUBMITTER: Sullender RT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8898196 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature