The topic of mandatory waiting periods for abortions (the amount of time required between a counseling appointment for an abortion and the abortion itself) came up in a reading of mine for another class. This lead me to go on an hour long tangent finding data for which states require mandatory waiting periods and of those states, how long the waiting periods are. I found data from the Henry J. Kaiser Foundation, titled Mandatory Waiting Periods for Women Seeking Abortions.
For waiting periods, the options include no waiting period, 18 hour waiting period, 24 hour, and 72 hour. Of the 50 states plus DC, 23 states plus DC do not require a mandatory waiting period, 1 state (Indiana) requires 18 hours between counseling and an abortion, 18 states require a 24 hour waiting period, 3 states require a 48 hour waiting period, and 5 states require a 72 hour waiting period.
Unsurprisingly, Utah has one of the highest mandatory waiting periods in the country along with Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and South Dakota. And surprisingly, Wyoming does not have a mandatory waiting period.
The issue that I found with this data is that it only shows the specific states in the United States, whether or not a mandatory waiting period is required, the amount time between counseling and the procedure, and if in-person counseling requires two trips to a clinic, but it fails to mention just how many abortion clinics are available in any given location.
For example, Utah has many options for abortions such as every Planned Parenthood (there are 7 in the state) plus all of the general physicians that will do this type of procedure while Wyoming has two options (one doctor in Teton County and a public health clinic). This data does not show, suggest, or imply that even though someone in Utah would have to wait, there are more places to get the procedure done in Utah than a place with no waiting period. I think that the social and cultural implication of this data suggests that states with no mandatory waiting periods for abortions are more liberal than states with mandatory waiting periods for abortions, whereas the simple data of “yes, this state has a waiting period” or “no, it does not” is not enough to extrapolate these types of conclusions.
I believe that there is also a political implication that because the article is listed under “State Health Facts” and “Women’s Health” that the data is pure, simple, unbiased, and that any audience could gather enough information to make an informed decision about it, but seriously, how can you? How can you make an informed decision about the societal implications of a state’s opinion on abortion when you have to search for more information? Like I would not have known that Wyoming only has two locations for abortion procedures and they happen to be in the only liberal county in Wyoming if I wasn’t from that liberal county.
Data/Society/Decision-Making 