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Roberta A. Downing, PhD, Thomas A. LaVeist, PhD and Heather E. Bullock, PhD

At the time of this study Roberta A. Downing was with the Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Md. Thomas A. LaVeist was with the Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions, Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore. Heather E. Bullock was with the Psychology Department, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Roberta A. Downing (email: robertadowning{at}yahoo.com).

Objectives. We examined how ethnicity and social class influence women’s perceptions of reproductive health care. Of primary interest was assessing whether health care providers are perceived as advising low-income women, particularly women of color, to limit their childbearing and to what extent they feel they are discouraged by providers from having future children.

Methods. Ethnically diverse, low-income (n=193) and middle-class women (n=146) completed a questionnaire about their pregnancy-related health care experiences.

Results. Logistic regression analyses revealed that low-income women of color experienced greater odds of being advised to limit their childbearing than did middle-class White women. A separate model demonstrated that low-income Latinas reported greater odds of being discouraged from having children than did middle-class White women.

Conclusions. Low-income women of color were more likely to report being advised to limit their childbearing and were more likely to describe being discouraged from having children than were middle-class White women. More research is needed regarding how ethnicity and social class impact women’s experiences with reproductive health care.