USA – People are paying for state abortion bans with their lives

Women are dying preventable deaths due to denied or delayed care, and doctors have started avoiding states with bans—restricting health care access for all

by Mina Manchester
February 11th, 2025

I had an ectopic pregnancy in 2014 while on the birth control pill. In an ectopic pregnancy, a fertilized egg develops in the fallopian tube. These pregnancies are never viable, and in every case, the condition is life-threatening to the pregnant person.

When this happened to me 11 years ago, I was 29, newly married, and privileged in many ways: white, educated, housed, and employed with health insurance. I was in rough shape when I was admitted to the hospital via the emergency room, where an ultrasound detected that my right fallopian tube had burst. I’d been bleeding internally for a week and was on the brink of turning septic. I was rushed into emergency surgery, where tissue and my fallopian tube were removed.

Continued: https://prismreports.org/2025/02/11/abortion-bans-deaths-health-care/

Doctors Are Leaving Conservative States to Learn to Perform Abortions. We Followed One.

Abortion has been heavily restricted in many states post-Roe — and abortion training has all but disappeared, too. Inside one doctor’s journey to obtain that education at any cost.

By Alice Miranda Ollstein
Sep 6, 2024

WILMINGTON, Delaware — The doctor was about midway through her month of training, her head swimming with the new skills she was learning, when a heavy, tattooed patient in her 20s walked into the clinic to terminate an early pregnancy.

In the cramped exam room, closely supervised by the abortion provider who would perform the procedure itself, the doctor began running through the setup tasks she had observed and practiced over the previous weeks: injecting the painkiller lidocaine into multiple spots around the patient’s cervix and inserting a speculum into her vagina.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/09/06/doctor-abortion-training-journey-00170741

In France, abortion restrictions offset by medical autonomy

While U.S. grapples to recruit OB-GYNs in the aftermath of Dobbs, French restrictions spur less concern

By Ariel Cohen
Posted May 16, 2024

PARIS — In an airless classroom in Paris City University one Friday afternoon in March, a group of 17 female health care professionals — some doctors, some midwives — gathered to spend the weekend learning how to perform surgical abortions.

Sophie Gaudau is the no-nonsense leader of REVHO health network, which started providing abortion training for health professionals 20 years ago, back when abortion access in France was slightly more limited for patients and in terms of what the doctor could do. Today her organization receives support from the French Ministry of Health and Prevention.

Continued: https://rollcall.com/2024/05/16/in-france-abortion-restrictions-offset-by-medical-autonomy/

Arizona’s now-repealed abortion ban serves as a cautionary tale for reproductive health care across the US

May 8, 2024
Swapna Reddy and Mary Saxon

When the Arizona Supreme Court ruled on April 9, 2024, that the state’s Civil War-era law banning nearly all abortions was enforceable, it brought into stark reality the potential impacts of leaving reproductive rights up to the states to regulate, and the related consequences for women’s health.

The ruling, set to go into effect in late June 2024, will only remain active for a few months because Arizona lawmakers repealed the law on April 30. Starting in the fall, a previous state law banning abortion after 15 weeks will be reinstated.

Continued: https://theconversation.com/arizonas-now-repealed-abortion-ban-serves-as-a-cautionary-tale-for-reproductive-health-care-across-the-us-228077

USA – Fearing Legal Threats, Doctors Are Performing C-Sections in Lieu of Abortions

Some physicians are doing unnecessary and invasive surgery on pregnant patients “to preserve the appearance of not doing an abortion.”

MARY TUMA
April 17, 2024

When news that Lizelle Gonzalez was suing the local prosecutor’s office for more than $1 million in damages, after being falsely imprisoned for murder over an attempted self-managed abortion in 2022, reproductive rights advocates cheered the move as a pathway to justice for the wrongfully charged southern Texas woman. However, a revelation in the lawsuit gave them pause: At the same hospital that reported her self-induced abortion to authorities, Gonzalez underwent a “classical C-section” for the delivery of her stillborn child, instead of abortion care. Major invasive surgery, Cesarean sections carry much higher risk for health complications, like hemorrhaging, compared with D&E abortion, and can jeopardize subsequent pregnancies.

Continued: https://www.thenation.com/article/society/c-sections-abortions-terrifying-new-reality/

18.04.2024

Commentary

Abortion on Our Own Terms

Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health

American Association of Pro-Life OB-GYNs

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

Association of American Medical Colleges

Center for Reproductive Rights

Charlotte Lozier Institute

Dr. Daniel Grossman

Dr. Ghazaleh Moayedi

Dr. Michele Heisler

Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act

forced C-sections

forced cesarean sections

Physicians for human Rights

Physicians for Reproductive Health

Reproductive Health Impact

USA – Most states received a D or F grade on maternal mental health. It could get worse.

By Carlotta Dotto and Alex Leeds Matthews, CNN
Sat July 29, 2023

Nearly every state in the United States is neglecting access to maternal mental health care, according to a recent report, and experts fear the situation could get worse as more states severely restrict or ban abortion.

All but 10 US states received either a D or F grade on a number of key measures of maternal mental health risk policies and access to care — including access to therapists, psychiatrists or mental health treatment programs, according to a May report released by the nonprofit Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health, in partnership with researchers from George Washington University. This is the group’s first report grading states on maternal mental health resources and policies.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/29/health/most-states-received-a-d-or-f-grade-on-maternal-mental-health-it-could-get-worse/index.html

Medical professionals describe a world of uncertainty a year after the Roe v. Wade reversal

Jul 23, 2023
Maureen Chowdhury, CNN

It's been over a year since Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion nationwide. The opinion was one of the most consequential Supreme Court decisions in decades and paved the way for states to pass laws to limit or ban access to the procedure.

Abortion has already become one of the defining issues of the 2024 campaign and is expected to continue to be a key topic as candidates face questions about whether they support banning the procedure on the local and national level.

Continued: https://www.kcra.com/article/medical-professionals-uncertainty-year-after-roe-v-wade-reversal/44619065#

23.07.2023

Commentary

Interviews/Podcasts

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

Association of American Medical Colleges

Brad Little

Dr. Pratima Gupta

lack of Ob/Gyns

prosecuting health providers

USA – Effects of Dobbs on maternal health care overwhelmingly negative, survey shows

By Kim Bellware and Emily Guskin
June 21, 2023

Sweeping restrictions and even outright abortion bans adopted by states in the year since the landmark Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling have had an overwhelmingly negative effect on maternal health care, according to a survey of OBGYNs released Wednesday that provides one of the clearest views yet of how the U.S. Supreme Court decision has affected women’s health care in the United States.

The poll by the health research nonprofit KFF reveals that the Dobbs ruling — which ended federal protection on the right to abortion — affected maternal mortality and how pregnancy-related medical emergencies are managed, precipitated a rise in requests for sterilization and has done much more than restrict abortion access. Many OBGYNs said it has also made their jobs more difficult and legally perilous than before, while leading to worse outcomes for patients.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/06/21/obgyn-abortion-poll/

21.06.2023

News

Association of American Medical Colleges

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

Kaiser Family Foundation

States With Abortion Bans Are Losing a Generation of Ob-Gyns

Half of US counties have no ob-gyn, and post-Roe laws prevent new doctors from getting required training. It's only going to get worse

BY MARYN MCKENNA
JUN 20, 2023

SHIRA FISHBACH, A newly graduated physician, was sitting in an orientation session for her first year of medical residency when her phone started blowing up. It was June 24, 2022, and the US Supreme Court had just handed down its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, nullifying the national right to abortion and turning control back to state governments.

Fishbach was in Michigan, where an abortion ban enacted in 1931 instantly came into effect. That law made administering an abortion a felony punishable by four years in prison, with no exceptions for rape or incest. It was a chilling moment: Her residency is in obstetrics and gynecology, and she viewed mastering abortion procedures as essential to her training.

Continued: https://www.wired.com/story/states-with-abortion-bans-are-losing-a-generation-of-ob-gyns/

USA – Abortion bans drive off doctors and close clinics, putting other health care at risk

May 23, 2023
By Julie Rovner

The rush in conservative states to ban abortion after the overturn of Roe v. Wade is resulting in a startling consequence that abortion opponents may not have considered: fewer medical services available for all women living in those states.

Doctors are showing — through their words and actions — that they are reluctant to practice in places where making the best decision for a patient could result in huge fines or even a prison sentence. And when clinics that provide abortions close their doors, all the other services offered there also shut down, including regular exams, breast cancer screenings, and contraception.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/05/23/1177542605/abortion-bans-drive-off-doctors-and-put-other-health-care-at-risk