A new study from public health researchers across the country shows total abortion bans in nine states are forcing doctors across multiple specialties to delay or withhold standard pregnancy care, putting women’s lives at risk due to fear of legal consequence.
A protestor advocating for abortion access.
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The study, conducted by five researchers affiliated with top hospitals and universities, was published Monday and found abortion bans are disrupting pregnancy-related care in cases that don’t include elective termination.
The research found doctors are delaying treatment for conditions like early pregnancy loss, ectopic pregnancy and pregnancies complicated by serious maternal illness because of legal uncertainty—not clinical judgment.
The associated delays in treatment “endanger patients” and “undermine patient autonomy and physician-patient trust,” the study found, as well as giving new responsibilities to physicians who must consider legal risk mitigation over medical decision making.
Pregnant women in states with total abortion bans are nearly twice as likely to die during pregnancy, childbirth or postpartum period, the study says, and pregnant Black patients face more than three times the mortality risk compared to their white counterparts.
The study's authors also flag potential long-term consequences, including worsening health care inequities and a diminished capacity to deliver safe pregnancy care in ban states.
Pro-life activists rally for a ban on abortion in front of the U.S. Supreme Court Oct. 12, 2021 in Washington, DC.
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“I had a woman who... has six children and a desired pregnancy and is like, ‘I'm trying to take care of my other six kids. And I have this, like, dead baby in my uterus. Can someone finally take care of me? I've been bounced around,’” an emergency medicine doctor told researchers. “We tend to be able to provide that care, but I see that we're like the third or fourth place that people are coming to.”
The study interviewed 40 doctors in obstetrics and gynecology, family medicine and emergency medicine from nine states with abortion bans: Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia. Across the board, doctors said they’re being required to seek additional lab testing and institutional approval for some medical procedures even when performing emergent, life-saving interventions. Physicians in at least one state said a formal panel of doctors is required to convene and collectively decide which patients qualify to receive an abortion. In another case, a mother with severe heart failure at 21 weeks had to get letters from cardiology and legal counsel before doctors would perform a cesarean birth, according to the study. One doctor said they performed an abortion-like procedure for a patient with a molar pregnancy—from which no viable baby can be born—while "wondering if I was going to be in jail in a couple months for doing it."
13. That's how many states have total abortion bans, according to the study: Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, South Dakota, North Dakota, Louisiana and Arkansas. 41 impose gestational limits.
The Institute for Women's Policy Research last week released a report estimating the average economic cost of abortion restrictions will be $140 billion this year—$7 billion more than what was estimated last year.
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