Abortion Facilities:
Pregnancy Without Pounds!Twenty-some years ago, in an effort to determine best practices for abortion facilities in the United States, the Alan Guttmacher Institute undertook a survey of all non-hospital abortion clinics. In addition, a more limited survey of hospital abortion service providers was conducted in an effort to learn more about the structure of clinics, the services they provide, and the patients they serve..
Questionnaires were mailed to 1353 facilities, which included: 309 abortion clinics, 422 public hospitals and 622 of the 1244 private hospitals identified. The facilities were categorized by the number of abortions they had reported to the Guttmacher Institute in 1975.
Completed questionnaires were returned by 75% of the clinics and 52% of the hospitals and these are some of the findings:
- Abortion counseling, contraceptive counseling, and contraceptive drugs and devices were offered by almost all clinics, regardless of the quantity of abortions performed.
- Most hospitals, other than really large ones, did not offer outpatient abortions services and only some provided abortion counseling, contraceptive counseling, or birth control methods to women who were seeking abortions.
- Many of the hospitals required parental consent up until age 18.
- Many of the clinics offered basic testing, counseling, contraceptive and other supportive services and follow-up care and, unlike the hospitals, they did not require parental consent before a minor could obtain an abortion.
- Clinics were more inclined to advertise their services, whereas hospitals rarely promoted or advertised any services.
- Hospitals with large abortion caseloads tended to operate more like clinics regarding their policies and practices.
- And finally, the Guttmacher Institute expressed concern that "despite the generally excellent record of clinics, their separation from mainstream health providers is cause for concern. It hinders better integration of health services and makes the development of adequate referral and informational resources for abortion more difficult."