Objectives: To explore the relationship of patients’ self-identified race/ethnicity with perceived race/ethnicity-based discrimination during abortion care.
Methods: We surveyed English- or Spanish-speaking individuals aged 18-50 within 30 days of surgical abortion at five Northeastern US reproductive health clinics from June 2020 to February 2021. Participants completed online surveys including race/ethnicity-based discrimination self-assessments measured by the 7-item Discrimination in Medical Settings scale (DMS). Any affirmative item response on a 5-point Likert scale was considered discrimination. We performed multivariable logistic regression examining DMS scores among Black non-Latinx, Latinx any race, other race non-Latinx (categorized as Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC)) compared to White non-Latinx participants.
Results: Participants (N=163) averaged 27(±6) years and self-identified as 36.2% Black non-Latinx, 28.8% White non-Latinx, 27.0% Latinx of any race, and 8.0% other non-Latinx. Most were unmarried/non-cohabitating (81.6%), publicly insured (52.8%), and <14 weeks gestational age (90.8%).
Few (15.3%) reported race/ethnicity-based discrimination during abortion care. BIPOC participants more commonly reported discrimination (adusted OR (aOR) 6.68, 95%CI 1.41-31.66) compared to White non-Latinx participants. Stratified by race/ethnicity, Black non-Latinx (aOR 9.18, 95%CI 1.79-47.16), Latinx (aOR 5.51, 95%CI 0.98-30.88) and other race non-Latinx participants (aOR 3.51, 95%CI 0.41-29.82) were more likely to experience discrimination compared to White non-Latinx.
Conclusions: BIPOC participants receiving abortion care were more likely to report discrimination, with Black non-Latinx reporting highest odds of discrimination compared to White non-Latinx participants. Larger studies in different regions are needed to verify our findings. Further research is warranted to understand BIPOC experiences of discrimination and identify effective intervention strategies.
Article info
Identification
Copyright
© 2021 Published by Elsevier Inc.
User license
Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) | How you can reuse 
Elsevier's open access license policy
Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0)
Permitted
- Read, print & download
- Redistribute or republish the final article
- Text & data mine
- Translate the article
- Reuse portions or extracts from the article in other works
- Sell or re-use for commercial purposes
Elsevier's open access license policy
