A Model for Assessing Access to Pregnancy Termination: Effect of Geographical Distance and Socio-economic Deprivation

The voluntary interruption of pregnancy (VTP), a right recognized countrywide, is suffering from the ongoing rationalization of public health costs, which have led to a progressive decrease in the services available in decentralized areas. The aim of this study is to examine whether users’ choices tend to converge towards healthcare facilities in their catchment area (CA) and whether the socio-economic deprivation of their area of residence and other individual factors of women are associated with mobility towards healthcare access points. The results showed that the higher frequency of VTPs outside the CA were found to be significantly associated with greatest socioeconomic deprivation.