The Turnaway Study

May 1, 2020

In this debut, Foster (Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health, Univ. of California, San Francisco) writes a comprehensive overview of abortion in the United States. At the same time, the organization of chapters that simultaneously foreground a significant issue and an individual women's story keeps the narrative as human as it is informational. Foster has compiled ten years' worth of research on women across 40 states and all ethnicities, yet never loses sight of that each woman's story is her own. She meets women in the waiting rooms of abortion facilities and continues to follow-up with them for up to five years after. These stories can be difficult to read, but they help to counter myths surrounding the effects of abortion on mental and physical health, while exploring how women cope with living in poverty or unsafe environments. VERDICT Foster listens to the "turnaway women," and lets their stories, even more than her own scholarship, disrupt the accepted moral and political narratives that regulate access to abortion.--Emily Bowles, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison

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May 1, 2020
A compelling examination of "the state of abortion access in our country and the people whose lives are affected by it." Foster, a professor and researcher in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, synthesizes the findings of The Turnaway Study, a 10-year longitudinal project, involving 40 researchers, comparing the emotional, physical, and economic effects to women of having an abortion or being denied one due to a clinic's deadline for when an abortion could be performed--a cutoff date that varied depending on the location of the clinic. The study excluded women seeking abortions because of fetal anomaly or severe health risk, which affect the timing of the decision. With much hearsay, unfounded assumptions, and strident rhetoric fueling public policy, the UCSF researchers aimed to provide scientific evidence about abortion "in the context of real women's lives." Beginning in 2007, the study included more than 1,000 women from diverse ethnic and economic backgrounds, recruited from 30 facilities in 21 states. From in-depth interviews conducted every six months, Foster has selected 10 women whose stories are related in their own words: white, Latina, and African American; rural and urban; some with strong family support, some facing their decision alone; women enmeshed in abusive relationships; some already mothers and some who went on to have children later; all with hopes for the future. Their candid stories are riveting, sometimes surprising, and always illuminating--as are the study's findings. There is "no evidence that abortion hurts women," the study concludes. "For every outcome we analyzed, women who received an abortion were either the same or, more frequently, better off than women who were denied an abortion." To those who assume women make the decision to abort rashly, the researchers found thoughtful deliberation. Required reading for anyone concerned about reproductive justice.

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May 11, 2020
Foster, a demographer and reproductive sciences professor at UC San Francisco, presents the findings from her decade-long study into the psychological and health affects of having an abortion in this illuminating, data-centric debut. Based on twice-yearly phone interviews with 1,000 women recruited from 30 abortion clinics in 21 states, Foster and her research team found that “women who received an abortion were either the same, or, more frequently, better off than women who were denied an abortion.” Foster scrutinizes several factors in these women’s lives, including their access to contraception, employment record, education level, financial situation, physical health, relationship status, and the well-being of children born either before or after they sought the abortion. She ends each chapter with in-depth first-person testimonials from women in the study, detailing their experiences of either ending an unwanted pregnancy or carrying it to term. Packed with informative charts and graphs, detailed discussions of state laws restricting abortion access, and thorough demographic analysis, Foster’s clearheaded account cuts through the noise surrounding this contentious issue. Policy makers and abortion rights activists should consider it a must-read. Agent: Gail Ross, the Ross Yoon Agency.