USA – Medical exceptions to abortion bans often exclude mental health conditions

Pregnant people were more likely to die from mental health conditions than any other cause, a CDC analysis found.

Nada Hassanein, Stateline
October 24, 2023

More than a dozen states now have near-total abortion bans following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, with limited medical exceptions meant to protect the patient’s health or life.

But among those states, only Alabama explicitly includes “serious mental illness” as an allowable exception. Meanwhile, 10 states with near-total abortion bans (Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wyoming) explicitly exclude mental health conditions as legal exceptions, according to an analysis from KFF, a health policy research organization.

Continued: https://19thnews.org/2023/10/medical-exceptions-abortion-bans-mental-health-conditions/

‘Abortion tests’ developed in Poland spark concern

Scientists are questioning the reliability and ethics of tests to detect abortion drugs in biological samples.

Oct 11, 2023
Layal Liverpool, Nature

Tests under development in Poland that are designed to detect abortion drugs in biological samples are raising scientific and ethical concerns among scientists.

It is not clear to what extent such tests are being used by judicial authorities in Poland, where abortion is restricted by law in most circumstances. But researchers question whether the tests are ready to be used to determine pregnancy outcomes. They also warn that such tests have the potential to embolden prosecutors in Poland and other countries with restrictive laws on abortion — and to discourage women there from seeking safe reproductive care.

Continued: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03129-9

USA – When women can’t access abortion, some take drastic measures

When women can’t access abortion, some take drastic measures
A new study looks at what happens in states with only a few abortion clinics

Published: Oct 17, 2018
By Kari Paul, Reporter

The newly conservative-majority Supreme Court could put abortion rights further in jeopardy, according to the authors of a new study in the journal Sexuality Research and Social Policy.

Researchers Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH), a reproductive health research group based at the University of California, San Francisco, compared abortion laws in Louisiana and Maryland and found state restrictions have a larger effect on women than initially thought.

Continued: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/when-women-cant-access-abortion-some-take-drastic-measures-2018-10-16

USA – Our research on abortion laws shows they are not based on facts and can even harm women

Our research on abortion laws shows they are not based on facts and can even harm women

Sarah Roberts, Opinion contributor
Published June 26, 2018
Our new study shows clinics and offices are as safe for abortion as surgical centers. Laws requiring them aren't rooted in fact and can even harm women.

Policymakers tout women’s health and safety when creating restrictive abortion laws, but new research from me and my colleagues unequivocally shows that restricting abortions to one type of facility makes no public health sense. Our work, published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, finds that abortion is no safer in an ambulatory surgical center than it is in a clinic or doctor’s office.

ASCs are fully equipped facilities for performing same-day surgeries. The Supreme Court ruling in Whole Woman’s Health vs. Hellerstedt two years ago found that the Texas law requiring that all abortion facilities meet the very specific and often stringent requirements of ASCs was unconstitutional.

Continued: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/06/26/abortion-laws-not-fact-based-can-harm-women-column/730938002/