Adolescent Awareness of the Changing Legal Landscape of Abortion in the United States and Its Implications

Abstract

Purpose: Restrictions on abortion in the United States will have disproportionate and negative impacts on adolescents. Prior to the Supreme Court ruling to overturn federal protection of abortion, we sought to examine adolescents' awareness and knowledge about the legal landscape of abortion and how changes might affect them.

Methods: We fielded a 5-question open-ended survey via text message to a nationwide sample of adolescents aged 14-24 years on May 20, 2022. We coded the responses using inductive consensus coding. Summary statistics were calculated for code frequencies and demographic data, and analyzed qualitatively using visual inspection of results overall and by subgroups (e.g., age, race and ethnicity, gender, and restrictiveness of state of residence).

Results: A total of 654 responded (79% response rate), of which 11% were under 18 years. Most adolescents were aware of potential changes to abortion access. Most adolescents reported using the internet and social media for information about abortions. Overall, negative emotions about the changing legal landscape predominated, including anger, fear, and sadness. When considering factors for abortion decisions, adolescents most often discussed finances and life circumstances including their future, age, education, maturity, and emotional stability. Themes were relatively, uniformly distributed across subgroups.

Discussion: Our study suggests that many adolescents are aware of and concerned about potential impacts of abortion restrictions, across a diversity of ages, gender, racial/ethnic, and geographic perspectives. Understanding and amplifying the voices of adolescents during this critical time is necessary to inform novel access solutions and policy initiatives that center the needs of youth.

Keywords: Abortion; Adolescents; Perspectives; Policy; Survey.