Abortions are up in the US. It’s a complicated picture as women turn to pills, travel

Even with abortion bans in place in most Republican-controlled states, the number of people obtaining them has grown slightly

Geoff Mulvihill and Kevin S. Vineys, Associated Press
Dec 28, 2024

Abortion has become slightly more common despite bans or deep restrictions in most Republican-controlled states, and the legal and political fights over its future are not over yet.

It's now been two and a half years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and opened the door for states to implement bans.

The policies and their impact have been in flux ever since the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/abortions-us-complicated-picture-women-turn-pills-travel-117162421

28.12.2024

News

Caitlin Myers

Dara Kass

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

Guttmacher Institute

pregnancy complications

Roe v. Wade

traveling for abortion

An ectopic pregnancy put her life at risk. A Texas hospital refused to treat her.

The 25-year-old woman and her mother blame the state’s abortion ban for a delay in care that doctors say put her “in extreme danger of losing her life”

By Caroline Kitchener
February 23, 2024

ARLINGTON, Tex. — Kelsie Norris-De La Cruz tried not to cry as the doctor in the emergency room delivered one of the most frightening diagnoses a pregnant woman can receive.

The 25-year-old college senior was told she likely had an ectopic pregnancy, a highly dangerous condition where the embryo implants outside of the uterus. Without immediate treatment, the fallopian tube can rupture — and the patient can die.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/23/texas-woman-ectopic-pregnancy-abortion/

USA – ‘I’ll lose my family.’ A husband’s dread during an abortion ordeal in Oklahoma

May 1, 2023
Selena Simmons-Duffin

Before February, Jaci Statton wasn't particularly focused on Oklahoma's abortion bans. "I was like, 'Well, that's not going to affect me. I won't ever need one,' " she says.

She's 25 and lives in central Oklahoma with her husband, Dustin, and their three kids — two 7-year-olds and an 8-year-old. They are a blended family with two kids from Jaci's previous marriage and one from Dustin's.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/05/01/1172973274/oklahoma-abortion-ban-exception-life-of-mother-molar-pregnancy

Abortion Laws Stand Between Pregnant Texans and the Care They Need

Doctors are left to guess at whether helping their patients will land them in prison.

BY SARA HUTCHINSON
MARCH 24, 2023

Doctors have a code, a set of principles meant to guide their practice: Give care. Act justly. Respect patients. Do no harm. But for Texas doctors, especially obstetrician-gynecologists, following those seemingly straightforward principles has become a legal and ethical minefield.

Physicians are finding themselves torn between providing medically appropriate care and staying in compliance with the state’s draconian anti-abortion laws. The stakes couldn’t be higher: risking major fines and up to life in prison for doctors on one side, and on the other, often putting women’s lives at risk because of delays in care or refusals to provide formerly routine procedures. As a result, medical decisions regarding pregnancy complications now involve a host of new stakeholders—hospital administrators and lawyers—who may put questions of institutional risk above patient well-being.

Continued: https://prospect.org/health/2023-03-24-abortion-laws-pregnant-texans/

Doctors Warned Her Pregnancy Could Kill Her. Then Tennessee Outlawed Abortion.

A Tennessee mother wanted to end her high-risk pregnancy, but doctors feared prosecution.

by Kavitha Surana, photography by Stacy Kranitz, special to ProPublica
March 14, 2023

This story graphically describes serious complications in pregnancies and births, and it mentions suicide.

One day late last summer, Dr. Barry Grimm called a fellow obstetrician at Vanderbilt University Medical Center to consult about a patient who was 10 weeks pregnant. Her embryo had become implanted in scar tissue from a recent cesarean section, and she was in serious danger. At any moment, the pregnancy could rupture, blowing open her uterus.

Dr. Mack Goldberg, who was trained in abortion care for life-threatening pregnancy complications, pulled up the patient’s charts. He did not like the look of them. The muscle separating her pregnancy from her bladder was as thin as tissue paper; her placenta threatened to eventually invade her organs like a tumor. Even with the best medical care in the world, some patients bleed out in less than 10 minutes on the operating table. Goldberg had seen it happen.

Continued: https://www.propublica.org/article/tennessee-abortion-ban-doctors-ectopic-pregnancy

USA – Despite dangerous pregnancy complications, many abortions are being denied

Health News Florida | By Associated Press
November 25, 2022

Increasing numbers of physicians and families nationwide say a post-Roe fear has come to pass: Pregnant women with dangerous medical conditions are showing up in hospitals and doctors’ offices and being denied the abortions that could help treat them.

Weeks after Roe v. Wade was overturned, Dr. Grace Ferguson treated a woman whose water had broken halfway through pregnancy. The baby would never survive, and the patient’s chance of developing a potentially life-threatening infection grew with every hour.

Continued: https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/politics-issues/2022-11-25/despite-dangerous-pregnancy-complications-many-abortions-are-being-denied

I Write About Post-Roe America Every Day. It’s Worse Than You Think.

Nov. 5, 2022
By Jessica Valenti

Despite Republican‌ assurances that their draconian abortion bans wouldn’t hurt women, a flood of heart-wrenching accounts from across the country prove otherwise. Yet even with that outpouring of stories, plus polls showing broad opposition to the bans and an increase in women registering to vote, it’s still unclear if the issue will be the deciding factor for voters in the midterm elections on Tuesday.

It should be.

05.11.2022

pregnancy complications

Texas – She wanted to be a mom. When the pregnancy failed, she almost died waiting for an abortion

A Texas couple is sharing their story, because they're afraid it will happen to others.

Nov. 3, 2022
By Danielle Campoamor

Amanda and Josh Zurawski couldn't wait to be "mom" and "dad."

Now, after a heartbreaking pregnancy complication and a new Texas law that required her doctors to wait until her life was in danger before they performed an abortion, Amanda feels lucky just to be alive.

Continued: https://www.today.com/parents/pregnancy/texas-woman-shares-almost-died-waiting-abortion-rcna52961

03.11.2022

Cervical incompetency

Dr. Heather Irobunda

Dr. Jennifer Lincoln

maternal health complications

Obstetricians for Reproductive Justice

pregnancy complications

Choosing sterilization, delaying treatment: Medical choices in U.S. are changing amid new abortion laws

Doctors, patients making care decisions on premise abortions illegal in wake of Supreme Court decision

The Associated Press
Jul 16, 2022

A sexual assault survivor chooses sterilization so she won't be forced to give birth if she's is ever attacked again.

An obstetrician delays inducing a miscarriage until a woman with severe pregnancy complications seems "sick enough."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/us-abortion-laws-repercussions-1.6522965

Doctors report compromising care out of fear of Texas abortion law

A new paper from the Texas Policy Evaluation Project says the confusion may be a harbinger for a post-Roe v. Wade world.

BY ELEANOR KLIBANOFF
JUNE 23, 2022

Doctors worried about getting sued under Texas’ restrictive abortion law have delayed treating pregnancy complications until patients’ lives were in danger, according to a paper from the Texas Policy Evaluation Project.

The law, which empowers private citizens to file suit against anyone who “aids or abets” in an abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy, has caused confusion among providers and complicated treatment for patients facing pregnancy complications, the study found.

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/06/23/texas-abortion-law-doctors-delay-care/

23.06.2022