Many low-income women struggle to gather payment and find a clinician or clinic for abortion care.  This struggle is juxtaposed with the passing weeks, as the longer she waits the more expensive and difficult to find the procedure is.  Community Health Centers (CHCs) are well versed in the struggles of low-income women as they balance children, work and financial constraints with their health.  Designed to build healthy communities by providing accessible healthcare, CHCs bring health resources to where low-income women live. 

What if low-income women could access the abortion care they need right in their communities?  What if medication abortion services were offered at community health centers?     

AAP’s work with CHCs acts on the belief that integrating early abortion into community based primary care can be a significant part of addressing low-income women’s abortion needs.  AAP has worked with four CHCs to successfully integrate abortion care into the services they provide.  Establishing a successful model that could be replicated by other CHCs would offer an important new intervention for improving access.  AAP is working with health centers in Massachusetts and across the country to explore the broader integration of abortion in community health settings.  We build institutional support and provide ideas and resources.

Integrating medication abortion into community health centers is a unique pilot project with critical potential.  Testing the viability of new settings for abortion care is one of the many ways AAP is creating innovative solutions to fill gaps in abortion access.