The Association Between Intimate Partner Violence and Distance Traveled to Access Abortion in a Nationally...

The objective of this article is to describe a secondary data analysis of the 2008 Abortion Patient Survey (APS 2008) data exploring the association between intimate partner violence (IPV) and travel distances in a national sample of patients seeking abortion services in the United States. The researchers used the 2008 APS, which is the most recent publicly available version of this dataset, to conduct chi-square tests to examine the bivariate associations between all independent and dependent variables. Prevalence ratios were calculated to determine the association between physical and sexual violence and distance traveled to get an abortion, controlling for length of pregnancy, age, education, income, poverty category, race, relationship status, insurance type, whether women went to the closest clinic, whether the pregnancy was wanted, and number of previous abortions. Results indicate that approximately 83% of the women traveled between 1 and 50 miles, 11% traveled between 51 and 100 miles, 4% traveled between 101 and 150 miles, and 3% traveled more than 151 miles to get an abortion. Prevalence ratios (PR) reveal that physical violence was significantly associated with distance traveled to get an abortion (PR = 1.15, p < .05) when all control variables were accounted for. Patients in abusive relationships that involve physical violence may have to travel longer distances to access abortion. Repeal of policy that impedes access to abortion is recommended.