Pregnancy Intendedness Among Racial and Ethnically Minoritized Women with Disabilities.

Background

A limited number of studies have examined the prevalence of unintended pregnancy among disabled women. However, no studies to date have examined the association between pregnancy intention and disability, in combination with race and ethnicity.

Methods

We analyzed data from the National Survey of Family Growth from the period 2011-2019 to estimate the prevalence of pregnancy intendedness among women with disabilities 15-45 years of age. We compared pregnancy intendedness among respondents with and without disabilities. Modified Poisson regressions were conducted to estimate the unadjusted and adjusted prevalence ratios (with 95% confidence intervals) of unintended pregnancy across disability type and by race and ethnicity category. Non-Hispanic White women without disabilities served as the referent group.

Results

Unadjusted results found that women with disabilities in all racial or ethnic groups were significantly more likely to report unintended pregnancies compared with non-Hispanic White women with no disabilities. Non-Hispanic Black women were more than three and a half times (PR = 3.72, 95% CI: 2.91-4.75) more likely than their non-Hispanic White counterparts to report an unintended pregnancy. After adjusting for demographic characteristics, results were slightly attenuated in all categories, with the exception of nondisabled Hispanic women, indicating high prevalence of unintended pregnancies.

Conclusions

Racial and ethnic minority women with disabilities may experience heightened risk for unintended pregnancy. Targeted efforts are needed to address barriers to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care and improve reproductive health outcomes among women who experience multiple forms of marginalization.