AAPI women deserve frank conversations about our health and open communication about where to find care. We deserve to access sexual and reproductive health services easily, often, and without shame.
When I was 16, a friend of mine asked me to go with her to Planned Parenthood to get an abortion, as she did not want to go alone. She had unprotected sex, and the Plan B pill she was given did not work. As I sat in the waiting room, I remember thinking how ashamed my parents would feel if I were the one undergoing the procedure.
While everyone I knew was taking birth control, I was far from understanding what it meant to have power and autonomy over my own body. My mother did not acknowledge my reproductive health until I left home for college. We did not discuss sex, pregnancy or even the idea of consent. She just handed me a box of condoms, and I felt disengaged and confused because deep down I knew I was gay.
My experience is far from unusual, especially among members of my community. Just ask Mei, who secretly Googled the word abortion because her Chinese parents refused to talk about it. Or Sarah, an Asian American woman living in the Midwest, who did not learn what sex was until high school. Talk to Ji-a, a South Korean woman, who drove an hour and a half to get an abortion so her parents would not find out.
Twenty-two million Asian Americans live in the United States, and one-third of low-income Asian women reside in states where abortion is banned or severely limited. Yet there is little research that examines the reproductive health care needs of AAPI communities.
These are just a few of the stories AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) women* shared with us for a first-ever study on their experiences with accessing abortion care, including medication abortion. Through in-depth interviews and focus groups, we heard from community members valiantly seeking to understand their bodies and get the health care they need
Twenty-two million Asian Americans live in the United States, and one-third of low-income Asian women reside in states where abortion is banned or severely limited. Yet there is little research that examines the reproductive health care needs of AAPI communities.
Within the abortion research that does exist, the AAPI community is often relegated to “other” or treated as a monolith-with little regard to the 100 distinct languages and 50 ethnic subgroups that comprise our community.
Our research bridges that gap by examining AAPI knowledge, access, and attitudes with medication abortion, which accounts for more than half of all abortions in the United States. As the future of medication abortion hangs in the balance, our findings offer a unique window into the challenges and setbacks AAPI communities face when accessing abortion care.
AAPI women experience deeply rooted cultural stigmas about their sexual and reproductive health from adolescence onward. AAPI teens are less likely than their peers to discuss sex and unplanned pregnancy with their parents and doctors.
We found that 35 percent of our survey respondents had never heard of medication abortion. Nearly half had no idea where to access abortion medication if they needed it.
Asian Americans also face language barriers to abortion care. While more than one-third of the AAPI community has limited English proficiency, abortion care information in brochures, clinic intake calls, and doctor’s appointments are rarely offered in Asian languages. So when Ghazal, an Indian woman, called an abortion hotline, no one could speak to her in Urdu, prolonging her intake process and delaying access to the care she needed.
Millions of Asian women who need abortion care are also immigrants. AAPI immigrant women can experience compounding challenges, including cultural stigmas, a lack of in-language services, and unjust policies, ranging from from laws restricting health insurance access to immigration checkpoints that deter people from traveling across state lines.
These barriers drive immigrants away from abortion care before they even have a chance to learn about it.
We deserve better. AAPI women deserve frank conversations about our health and open communication about where to find care. We deserve to access sexual and reproductive health services easily, often, and without shame.
We can build a better future, even as the anti-abortion movement and conservative extremists try to legislate abortion out of existence.
We can challenge cultural stigmas and frame reproductive health care as vital, not a source of shame or embarrassment. Community leaders can educate and empower AAPI communities by challenging efforts to stigmatize abortion as dangerous and immoral. Clinics and health centers can offer more in-language services and align outreach materials with the AAPI communities they serve.
We can build a better future, even as the anti-abortion movement and conservative extremists try to legislate abortion out of existence.
Finally, we can advocate for systemic change so that every person regardless of immigration status has access to affordable health care. Alongside the recent expansion of health care for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, we must fight to pass all provisions of the HEAL Act, which would ensure Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) eligibility for lawfully present immigrants and extend the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) insurance eligibility to all undocumented immigrants.
I have come a long way since my mom handed me that box of condoms. As my wife and I expect our first child, we are grateful for the reproductive health care we receive as soon-to-be mothers. These days, I feel empowered to be part of a generation that understands the power that comes with having the opportunity to make our own decisions. It is the least we deserve, and it is the only way we will continue to move forward.
*Pseudonyms have been used to protect the anonymity of NAPAWF’s study participants.
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