This paper aims to describe the abortion seeking and travel experiences of women and pregnant people who traveled to England and Wales for an abortion between 2017 and 2019. Over a third of participants considered abortion four weeks or more before presenting for care at BPAS, and around two-thirds sought abortion services in their home country before traveling. The majority of participants indicated that they would have preferred to have obtained an abortion earlier and cited reasons including scheduling issues, a dearth of local services, delayed pregnancy recognition, and financial difficulties as causing their delay. About seventy percent of participants reported travel costs between €101–1000 and 75% of participants reported that the cost of the abortion procedure exceeded €500. About half of participants indicated that, overall, their travel was very or somewhat difficult.[-]

US and European studies demonstrate that exceeding specified gestational age (GA) limits makes travel across borders to seek care in another state or country necessary and can result in a serious burden. The pandemic has severely restrained mobility and travellingabroad (including for health reasons) has become complicated. Governments now have the option of expanding or removing GA limits and specifications (such as the number of health professionals required to sign approvals) for the provision of abortion care, which are arbitrary from public health and human rights perspectives and negatively impact the health and rights of pregnant people[-]

Objectives: Little is known about the experiences of women who travel within Europe for abortion care from countries with relatively liberal laws. This paper aims to assess the primary reasons for travel among a sample of women who travelled from European countries with relatively liberal abortion laws to obtain abortion care mainly in the UK and the Netherlands.
Results: Study participants overwhelmingly reported travelling forabortion because they had exceeded GA limits in their country of residence. Participants also reported numerous delays and barriers to receiving care.[-]

Depuis la Seconde Guerre mondiale, les politiques d'avortement sont restées remarquablement variées à travers les pays européens, les luttes pour le droit à l'avortement étant au premier plan de la politique nationale. Ce volume analyse la gouvernance européenne de l'avortement et explore comment les mouvements sociaux, les groupes politiques et les individus utilisent les protestations et la résistance pour influencer la politique de l'avortement. S'appuyant sur des études de cas d'Italie, d'Espagne, de Norvège, de Pologne, de Roumanie, de Russie, de Suède, de Suisse, du Royaume-Uni et de l'Union européenne, il analyse les stratégies et les discours de groupes cherchant à libéraliser ou restreindre les droits reproductifs. Il met également en lumière la manière dont les politiques des droits reproductifs se croisent avec les angoisses démographiques, ainsi que la montée des nationalismes et de la xénophobie liés aux politiques d'austérité, aux migrations de masse et aux récents attentats terroristes en Europe. [-]