USA – Maternal Deaths Were Highest in States That Restrict Abortion

Sophia Vahanvaty, Bloomberg News
Jul 18, 2024

Women were more than twice as likely to die in or around childbirth in some US states with severe abortion restrictions compared to those with greater access, researchers said, and disparities could worsen as access to the procedure narrows.

Mississippi, Texas, Oklahoma and other states that enacted abortion bans after the Supreme Court’s June 2022 Dobbs decision were among the worst across 32 measures on women’s health that included access to care and mental health services, according to a report Thursday from the Commonwealth Fund, an independent health research foundation. It focused on data collected in 2021 and 2022.

Continued: https://financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/maternal-deaths-were-highest-in-states-that-restrict-abortion

18.07.2024

maternal care providers

Abortion restrictions repel graduating OB-GYNs from conservative states, report shows

Adrianna Rodriguez, USA TODAY
Sept 29, 2023

A survey found new doctors are changing their plans to practice in states with abortion restrictions after the 2022 Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that preserved abortion as a constitutional right for nearly 50 years.

Researchers from the University of Utah School of Medicine received responses from nearly 350 graduating obstetricians and gynecologists from training sites in 37 states. Findings showed more than 17% of residents said the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision changed their practice and fellowship plans.

Continued: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2023/09/29/abortion-new-doctors-avoid-conservative-states-survey-shows/70980770007/

29.09.2023

News

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

Commonwealth Fund

Dr. Alex Woodcock

Dr. Leilah Zahedi-Spung

maternal mortality

Ob-Gyn and abortion

Roe v. Wade

states with abortion bans

United States

Clinical

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

In the Post-Roe Era, Letting Pregnant Patients Get Sicker—by Design

Fearing legal repercussions, doctors in Texas say they are risking grave patient harm to comply with new abortion restrictions.

By Stephania Taladrid
May 6, 2023

Parkland Memorial Hospital is an elegantly landscaped, blue-glass facility gleaming in the concrete expanse of what was once a manufacturing district in Dallas. The sole public hospital in a city of nearly 1.3 million people, it’s also a beacon in the state. People in medical distress travel to see its doctors from rural towns hundreds of miles away, and some of those distressed patients are pregnant.

Half of the counties in Texas, according to state data, lack a single specialist in women’s health: no ob-gyn, no nurse, no midwife who can treat mothers and their babies. But Parkland, one of thirty-two hospitals credentialled to treat high-risk-pregnancy cases, takes all comers. More than ten thousand babies are born there every year, and pregnant people also show up in its hectic emergency room with conditions that threaten their lives. Some patients have hemorrhages and spiralling infections; some are critically ill with cancer or heart disease; some are at acute risk of stroke if they bring their pregnancies to term.

Continued: https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/in-the-post-roe-era-letting-pregnant-patients-get-sicker-by-design

Maternal and infant death rates are higher in states that ban or restrict abortion, report says

By Jacqueline Howard, CNN
Wed December 14, 2022

The rates of mothers and newborn babies dying during pregnancy, at birth or postpartum are much higher in states that currently ban or restrict abortions than in states preserving access, according to a new report.

The researchers analyzed data on deaths and other health outcomes using the most recent data available – from 2020 and earlier – and compared rates based on states’ current abortion access policies, as of November, after the Supreme Court decision this summer that overturned Roe v. Wade.
Continued:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/14/health/maternal-infant-death-abortion-access/index.html

States with the toughest abortion laws have the weakest maternal supports, data shows

August 18, 2022
RACHEL TREISMAN

Nearly two dozen states have moved to restrict abortion or ban it altogether since the reversal of Roe v. Wade — meaning more people, especially those with low incomes and from marginalized communities, will be forced to carry unwanted pregnancies to term.

So are states prepared to pay for the infrastructure needed to support these parents and children? The data paints a grim picture for many families: Mothers and children in states with the toughest abortion restrictions tend to have less access to health care and financial assistance, as well as worse health outcomes.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2022/08/18/1111344810/abortion-ban-states-social-safety-net-health-outcomes

States Where Abortion Is Illegal Also Have the Worst Support Systems for Mothers

The decision to overturn Roe v. Wade has made clear that women with the fewest reproductive rights also live in states that provide the least support for babies they’re now forced to birth.

By Lauren Camera
Aug. 8, 2022

When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, eviscerating the 1973 landmark case that protected access to abortion for women in the U.S., Destiny Herndon-De La Rosa, a lifelong anti-abortion activist, left the convention center in downtown Atlanta where the National Right to Life was holding its annual conference, walked to her hotel room and cried.

“I joined the movement when I was 15 and I went to law school so I could do something like this,” she says. “Every part of my 15-year-old self would be so elated to see Roe overturned. But now I know more and I've seen more and I understand the reality of this. And I'm so scared for so many women.”

Continued: https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2022-08-08/states-where-abortion-is-illegal-also-have-the-worst-support-systems-for-mothers