The $345 Cost — and Roadblocks — of Obtaining an Abortion in a Restricted State

Welcome to Show the Receipts, a series where we ask interesting people to share exactly how much it costs to get shit done. No matter the task, we're tracking every last dollar from start to finish. Up next: obtaining an abortion in a state with restricted access.

When Jamie*, 28, didn't feel her usual pounding headache coming on before getting her period, she had a gut feeling she might be pregnant. A positive test a few days later confirmed her suspicions, and she immediately knew that she would get an abortion. Living in a state with restrictive abortion laws (at the time, Arizona had a 15-week abortion ban, which it's recently reverted back to), Jamie's main priority was maintaining her privacy. "Besides the obvious lack of accessibility to abortion with a medical provider in Arizona, I was really nervous to tell anyone who is not pro-choice," she says. "I didn't want to feel like I needed to justify my decision to anyone."

Jamie and her husband found out she was five weeks pregnant. They looked into Planned Parenthood first, and quickly discovered there was only one location within an hour driving distance that provided abortions. (Of the seven Planned Parenthood locations in Arizona, only four provide abortion services.) Arizona law requires patients to undergo two visits: one to confirm the pregnancy with an ultrasound and physician counseling, and another at least 24 hours later for the procedure itself. According to Jamie, ultrasound appointments at this particular location were only provided two days a week in a limited time frame. When she drove to the clinic, there was a 50-person line and a waitlist for an appointment. "I was pretty much willing to pay anything that they would've told me, but I couldn't even get in," she says.

So Jamie started exploring other options. She turned to Reddit threads about obtaining abortions in Arizona, and found one doctor in her area that offered the procedure. But she learned it would be around $600 total for the necessary appointments and medication. She considered driving five or six hours to California, where abortion is legal until "viability" (about 24 weeks), and where she had friends and family to lean on. But after doing the mental math of figuring out dates and logistics, she decided she didn't want to wait much longer.

She ultimately decided to order abortion pills by mail through PrivateEmma, a seller based in Las Vegas that offers abortion pills. "I felt somewhat comfortable doing this at home because I'm a pretty healthy person already, and at that point that felt like my only option left," she says. "When I was looking through what the documentation would look like, I was less nervous about [my information] getting back to the state of Arizona or to someone who might have malicious intent with that information about me."

Jamie filled out a form with her mailing address and how far along she was in pregnancy, then paid $140 via PayPal. While she spent less on the abortion pill than the hundreds she initially anticipated for a medical procedure, she paid a price in the obstacles, confusion, and anxiety that came along with it.

Here's the full price breakdown.

Task: Obtaining an abortion
Occupation: Consultant
Location: Arizona
Timeline: 12 days

Pregnancy tests: $12
Medication: $140
At-home care products: $43
Food delivery: $150
Total cost: $345

PS: What did you find to be the most surprising cost or part of the process?
Jamie: The most surprising part was how difficult it was to see a medical provider in Arizona. I thought I would be able to just show up to Planned Parenthood and get it done relatively quickly. There's only one affordable option available: to go to Planned Parenthood. So when I was trying to conduct research and figure out what my next steps were, I was just hit in the face with the idea that this was not going to be easy. I was going to have to find other, more cumbersome, more emotionally difficult options than going somewhere where there were people I knew I could trust.

PS: Was cost a main concern for you as you navigated your options?
Jamie: It wasn't a main concern for me. I knew that I wanted an abortion and I was willing to pay what was needed. But after looking at some of the costs and chatting with friends in California who were trying to find options, I wasn't sure that the $300, $400 difference between ordering pills online and doing this at home versus going into a doctor would be worth it.

It was more the privacy piece. I don't think there are any laws in Arizona about reporting those seeking abortions to authorities, but I'm from Texas and those things exist there. Those potential consequences were definitely on my mind when I was thinking about where and who I could go to.

PS: What products did you find particularly helpful in preparing for a medication abortion? Any other costs to consider?
Jamie: I bought a new bottle of ibuprofen. I already had a heating pad, but if I didn't I absolutely would've purchased a heating pad for this. I also bought pads because I wasn't sure what the bleeding would look like before or after. And over the weekend, because it did take a couple of days to feel better, my husband was taking care of me, so we ordered dinner two or three times. That was probably $150 in Uber Eats over the course of three days. I also ordered 10 pregnancy tests when I first thought I was pregnant.

Jamie believes she "did the best she could" with the options that were available to her, but "I wish there were more affordable options," she says. "Planned Parenthood likely would have been affordable, but it was so inaccessible that it wasn't a real option for care given the time limits imposed by Arizona's abortion restrictions. I wish there was more public education available, so I knew more about the options available to me, and that Arizona allowed more reproductive freedoms for women to make the choices for their own bodies."

But despite the roadblocks she encountered, she's grateful for her support system and that she was able to obtain an abortion safely and privately. "I know that many people don't have this luxury, especially given the growing restrictions in Arizona and across the country," she says. "I'm lucky that I'm in a position where I could afford a more expensive procedure, but the reality is not everyone is in [my] position."

*Name has been changed for privacy

Yerin Kim (she/her) is the features editor at PS, where she writes, assigns, and edits feature stories and helps shape the vision for special projects and identity content across the network. Originally from Seoul and currently based in New York City, she's passionate about elevating diverse perspectives and spreading cultural sensitivity through the lenses of lifestyle, style, wellness, and pop culture. A graduate of Syracuse University's Newhouse School, she has over six years of experience in the women's lifestyle space.