Utah's 72 hour abortion waiting period: Attitudes and experiences of women seeking abortions

Utah is one of two states in the country that requires a 72-hour waiting period after receiving in-person, state-mandated information in order to obtain an abortion. Little is known about what women think about these restrictions on abortion. We conducted telephone interviews with women three weeks after they presented for the abortion information visit in Utah. Based on analyses of preliminary data from 89 women completing interviews, most (80%) reported that waiting 72 hours did not change how certain they were about their decisions and fewer than 5% said it made them less certain. The vast majority (84%) felt that having to wait 72 hours was not helpful for themselves, as they had already made their decision when they first called for their appointment. More than half reported having to take extra time off work (53%) or having to spend more money (61%) because of the requirement of two in-person visits. Notably, a substantial minority felt that the waiting period (32%) and two-visit requirements (30%) would help other women, and only 19% believed that women should NOT be required to listen to the mandatory information before getting an abortion. Findings indicate that most women do not find the waiting period helpful and experience additional financial burdens as a result of the two-visit requirement. Despite their own experiences, many women believed Utah’s waiting period, two-visit requirement, and mandatory information requirements help other women.  Further research is needed to assess whether these findings are generalizable to other states with 72-hour waiting periods.