SOCIAL SCIENCE ORAL ABSTRACTS: Patient experiences with protestors while accessing abortion care in Jackson, Mississippi

Introduction In August 2019, the city council in Jackson, Mississippi passed a 15-foot buffer, 8-foot bubble and 100-foot quiet zone ordinance for all health clinics, aimed at discouraging protestor activity outside the state\u0027s only licensed abortion facility. After a series of legal challenges, Jackson repealed the ordinance in November 2020. We sought to learn about patients’ encounters with protestors and how the ordinance would have affected their experiences obtaining abortion care. Method Prior to passage of the ordinance, patients seeking care at the Mississippi facility enrolled in a prospective study on their access to abortion care and contraception; we invited participants completing the 6-month follow-up survey after August 2019 to participate in an in-depth interview about their experiences with protestors at their visits. During the phone interviews, we asked participants about their encounters with protestors and the role of escorts and clinic security in mitigating interactions; we also provided a description of the city ordinance and then asked how this might have changed their experience had it been in place when they were obtaining care. We analyzed interview transcripts for content and themes using both inductive and deductive approaches. Results Of the 30 participants interviewed, the majority said they expected to see protesters at their visits; however, they frequently noted they were surprised by the number of protestors crowding the street and sidewalk near the facility and how close protestors were able to get to patients. Participants overwhelmingly described protesters as “pushy and determined,” and some remarked they felt unsafe because they thought protestors were unpredictable and were aware of violence that had taken place at other facilities. Parking in the clinic lot or on the street largely shaped the intensity of patients’ interactions with protestors. While most participants expressed a strong sense of reproductive autonomy, they also noted that protestors’ presence and comments had a negative emotional impact. Participants credited clinic escorts and security with mitigating these negative experiences by demonstrating concern about patients’ wellbeing, validating their abortion decision and preventing more involved encounters, but a few expressed that needing to have escorts, in general, increased their safety concerns. Nearly all participants stated that the city ordinance would have had a positive effect on their experience, noting they would have felt more at ease, safer, and had the privacy they desired. Conclusions Prior to the passage of Jackson\u0027s city ordinance, protestors created stressful and negative experiences for the majority of study participants seeking abortion care, even though the facility adopted strategies aimed at ameliorating protestors’ impacts on patients. Although the city ordinance was short-lived, these results indicate that patients need additional protections to ensure they can obtain essential health care with respect.