With the recent 41st anniversary of the historic Roe v. Wade Supreme Court verdict that legalized abortion, it’s important that we consider the access (or lack thereof) to pregnancy termination services that women in Athens have.
Because of the huge number of policies that place the burden of abortion on to the patient, someone could be financially devastated or simply unable to obtain an abortion, because of the huge costs associated with it. Those who live in rural areas are disproportionately likely to be in poverty, as 95 percent of counties in the United States have persistent poverty in rural areas. This, combined with the fact that living in rural areas means you are probably farther away from an abortion provider, puts rural people seeking pregnancy termination services in a double-bind.
It’s also important to remember that there has been a historically disproportionate amount of poverty in rural areas and a disproportionate amount of those in poverty in rural areas are non-white. Thus, it makes traveling, skipping work and paying for the procedure a much bigger burden for many in rural areas.
To illustrate this, I’m going to use Athens as an example. This town is in the poorest county in Ohio, and the poverty rate is 26 percent. The closest abortion clinic is in Columbus and takes an hour and a half to get to by car, according to Google Maps, and there are no bus routes that can be used to get there. Even if a woman wanting to get an abortion in Athens did own a car, it would cost quite a bit of gas money to get there and back. Ohio also has a mandatory 24-hour waiting period, meaning that you would either need to drive back to the clinic the next day or get a hotel for the night, either option being costly.
Thanks to the new law that was written into the state budget for this year, you also must get a mandatory ultrasound before getting an abortion, which must be paid for by the patient. If you don’t have health insurance, this could cost anywhere from an estimated $100 to $1,000. All of this, not even including the price of the actual procedure, could be financially devastating to a woman from Athens.
All of this makes a woman’s right to choose very hard to actually exercise.
Let this serve as a reminder that our political and feminist activism is very necessary and that we need to continue advocating for pro-choice policies and political candidates. If you are a rural (or any) woman who needs an abortion but you do not have enough money to get it, look into abortion funds like this one that raises money to give to people like you.
We all must continue to fight and work for abortion access for us all, but it’s important to consider those, like rural women, who often get left behind.
Erin McKelle Fischer is a junior studying women’s and gender studies.
