'Study' pushes expansion and tax funding of later abortions

A study published this month in JAMA Network Open has called for "expand[ing] the availability of later abortion," especially "in states with Medicaid coverage," because the authors identified "challenges" to abortion if "care is more expensive."

Study authors noted that "[e]conomic research has documented that increases in self-pay prices reduce abortion utilization."

Key Takeaways:

• A study is calling for more Medicaid-funded late-term abortion, as the cost of second-trimester abortion typically exceeds the Medicaid reimbursement rate.

• Study authors call for the expansion of more late-term abortion, with the removal of viability "restrictions."

• Abortion is tethered to eugenics; when taxpayers fund abortion, abortions increase.

The Details:

Authors looked at self-pay and Medicaid-funded late-term abortion, utilizing mystery callers between November 2024 and April 2025 who contacted facilities identified at the websites: laterabortion.org, abortionfinder.org, and ineedana.com in August of 2024 for their results. They wrote:

"Callers identified themselves as a woman looking for an abortion who just found out she was pregnant at her private doctor’s office. The pregnancy was dated on ultrasound. She had gone in because she was not feeling well. She described herself as shocked she was pregnant and wanting to get an abortion as soon as possible."

They found that "130 facilities in 20 states and the District of Columbia" (52 clinics, 78 hospitals) advertised a willingness to commit abortions at or after 23 weeks of pregnancy.

In August of 2024, abortions at "23 weeks’ pregnancy duration was broadly legal in 28 states and DC," the study claimed. Babies born as young as 21 weeks have survived when given medical care.

Later abortion costs

Regarding costs of later abortions, the authors found that:

"Median self-pay prices increased from $3000 at 23 weeks to $17 250 at 33 weeks, with a statistically significant increase of $2541 from 23 to 25 weeks.

The number of facilities providing care declined from 130 at 23 weeks to 31 at 25 weeks and 3 at 33 weeks.

Among facilities in states with Medicaid coverage, 73 of 105 (69.5%) consistently reported accepting Medicaid; acceptance declined at later pregnancy durations and varied by state."

"The number of facilities advertising care at 25 weeks decreased to 31 across 9 states and DC," they also wrote.

Prices increased with advancing pregnancy duration.

• 23 weeks: $3,000 ($2,197-$4,136)

• 25 weeks: $6,090 ($4,250-$7,044)

• 27 weeks: $7,975 ($7,750-$10,195)

• 29 weeks: $11,500 ($10,325-$12,900)

• 31 weeks: $19,000 ($16,750-$19,400)

• 33 weeks: $17,250 ($16,375-$18,125)

"Prices did not differ significantly between hospitals and clinics at 23 and 25 weeks, although hospitals were less likely to provide prices...although hospitals provided fewer quoted prices," they alleged.

Medicaid reimbursements for later abortion

Authors found that the cost of a "second trimester abortion was substantially higher than the reported median Medicaid reimbursement rate...[of] $570.30," pointing out that "some facilities advertising later abortion care did not always accept their state Medicaid" and that "some abortion-providing facilities do not conduct third-party billing for care."

The authors wrote, "One contributing factor may be that Medicaid programs impose unique restrictions on abortion coverage that make accepting coverage more difficult," adding:

"In 4 states, some facilities advertising abortion care at 23 weeks reported not accepting Medicaid during at least 1 call, including California (14 of 28 [50%]), Maryland (1 of 2 [50%]), and Oregon (2 of 3 [67%]).

Among 27 facilities providing care at 25 weeks in states with Medicaid coverage, 18 (66.7%) reported accepting Medicaid; corresponding proportions were 75.0% at 27 weeks and 33.3% at 29, 31, and 33 weeks."

Despite pro-abortion groups calling for increased tax dollars to fund abortion, this suggests that it is profit, not "access," that is more important to abortion providers.

According to the pro-abortion KFF.org:

• "Although clinical care is more complicated after the first trimester, reimbursement rates do not increase significantly to reflect the increased complexity and higher costs associated with abortion care later in pregnancy ..."

• "In recent years, some states, such as Illinois, New York, New Mexico, and Maryland have significantly boosted their Medicaid reimbursement rates to support abortion access...For example, six states have more than doubled their reimbursement rates for D&C procedures and five states for D&E procedures since 2017."

Calls to expand later abortion 'access'

Instead of assisting women in delivering their babies alive, study authors called to expand "the availability of later abortion care, especially in states with Medicaid coverage" and sought the removal of "viability restrictions" as well as the "expansion of services" and "development of new facilities in states where care is legally permissible but not currently available."

By "care," authors mean the execution of precious preborn children in a dismemberment or induction abortion at a stage when babies can survive outside the womb.

Abortion advocates know that later abortions are rarely committed for "health" reasons, and they will point to multiple reasons why women seek later abortions, including simply not knowing they were pregnant until later in pregnancy.

Medical malpractice attorney Mike Seibel told Live Action News:

"The vast majority of women that I see in my practice choose late-term abortion because of relationship breakdown, drug abuse, sudden job loss, or fetal anomaly. Late-term abortion is rarely done for medical reasons, as there are other safer procedures available."

Seibel, who operates the AbortionInjury.com website with his co-counsel Justin Hall, previously told Live Action News that the abortion industry knows committing later abortions in outpatient facilities is more dangerous for women, emphasizing that the "Standard of Care is that they should be done in a hospital or hospital-like setting” due to the risks involved.

He added:

"Late-term abortions for medical reasons would be contraindicated for clinics like the Valley Abortion Group, Southwestern Women’s Options, Partners in Abortion, and the Rise Clinic in Colorado. These are outpatient facilities, and that would pose an extreme risk to the woman that no rational abortion provider would take."

If abortions committed in the third trimester are extremely dangerous to commit outside a hospital setting and abortion ‘experts’ and insurers acknowledge that these abortions are too unsafe for freestanding clinics, why would Medicaid fund them?

Why it Matters

Abortion is tethered to eugenics. The industry knows that when taxpayers fund abortion, abortions increase.

Medicaid can be used to fund late-term abortions, despite federal Hyde Amendment prohibitions, which “ban[] state use of federal Medicaid dollars to pay for abortions unless the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, or the abortion is ‘necessary to save the life of the woman.'” States, however, decide whether or not to use their portion of those dollars to pay for the killing of preborn babies — at any stage of development, for any reason.

According to an April 2026 report from the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, “9 states and the District of Columbia do not restrict abortion on the basis of gestational duration.” In May 2026, the former Planned Parenthood "special affiliate" wrote that "Currently, 20 states without total abortion bans allow state Medicaid funds to be used to cover abortion care beyond the limitations of the Hyde Amendment."

Despite the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits taxpayer dollars from funding most abortions, some states still fund some abortions for any reason at the state level, according to expenditure reports at Medicaid.gov.

As Live Action News has already shown, abortionists are aware that, at a certain point in the second trimester, abortion becomes far more risky to women than carrying to term. In addition, the industry knows that in doing late-term abortions outside hospital or hospital-like settings, it is violating the ‘standard of care’ and putting women at significantly greater risk. But knowing and doing are two different things, and an industry that intentionally and electively kills human beings clearly cannot be trusted to care about the safety of women or their children.

Zoom Out:

Authors Tracy A. Weitz, PhD and Malcolm Wilson Schwartz sought to "estimate quoted self-pay prices and assess state Medicaid acceptance for later abortion care from 23 to 33 weeks of pregnancy duration."

• Tracey Weitz is a professor of sociology at American University, Washington, DC, the former U.S. Programs Director for the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation; and co-founder and director of Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) at the University of California, San Francisco, according to her bio. Her LinkedIn page reveals past associations with ACLU and Planned Parenthood Golden Gate, which was later disaffiliated from PPFA for serious problems

• Malcolm Wilson Schwartz is in the undergrad program at the University of California, Irvine, and Weitz's research assistant.

The cross-sectional study entitled "Later Abortion Care Availability, Quoted Self-Pay Prices, and State Medicaid Acceptance" was funded by the Society of Family Planning (SFP), which was founded in 2005 thanks to a generous contribution from the Packard Foundation. In 2016, the Buffett Foundation (Warren Buffett, known as the sugar daddy of the pro-abortion movement) gave SFP over $8 million and granted SFP an additional nearly $18M between 2023 and 2024.

Both the Buffett Foundation and Packard Foundation invested in the abortion pill in the early days, and pump millions into the University of California (UC), the Ryan Residency Abortion Training Program, and other pro-abortion endeavors.

SFP has funded multiple Universities, including American University and UC, among other pro-abortion organizations.

The Bottom Line:

Abortion at any stage kills a preborn baby in the womb and can harm or kill the pregnant mother. This push to not only expand later abortions but force the taxpayers to fund these barbaric procedures is not new. The abortion industry has always advocated for unrestricted abortion on demand at any stage of gestation, for any reason, for profit.

National abortion data does not break down abortions at or after 23 weeks of pregnancy. In 2025, while the majority of abortions (over one million) occurred in the first 13 weeks of pregnancy, over 90K abortions are estimated to have taken place after 14 weeks, with over 11,000 of those committed at 21 weeks or greater.

A recent decision from the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic will allow states to redirect taxpayer dollars away from abortion facilities; perhaps more states should enact these measures.