Why Do Many Pregnancies Adopt Abortion? An Empirical Study of the State’s “Trigger Law” and a “Sensitive Constraints on Healthcare Quality”

Eight more women are joining a lawsuit against the state of Texas, saying the state’s abortion bans put their health or lives at risk while facing pregnancy-related medical emergencies.

“What happened to these women is indefensible and is happening to countless pregnant people across the state,” Molly Duane, an attorney with the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement.

The Texas “trigger law” was passed in anticipation of the US Supreme Court’s reversal of the Wade decision.

“It concerns me, yeah, because the statute was never intended to restrict access to medically-necessary abortions,” Mitchell said. There is a clear difference between abortions that are medically necessary and those that are purely optional, writes the statute. The abortions that are purely “elective” are in violation of the law.

The concern for women’s health is being raised by more than abortion rights advocates. A recent warning comes from a man who was the surgeon general for the Trump administration, and is now working on health equity issues.

An early indication of that impending medical “brain drain” came in February, when 76% of respondents in a survey of more than 2,000 current and future physicians say they would not even apply to work or train in states with abortion restrictions. Many qualified candidates would no longer consider working or training in more than half of the US states, according to the study.

It means fewer doctors will be able to care for women in ways that protect them from sexually transmitted diseases and infertility.

In March, Bonner General Health, the only hospital in Sandpoint, Idaho, announced it would discontinue its labor and delivery services, in part because of “Idaho’s legal and political climate” that includes state legislators continuing to “introduce and pass bills that criminalize physicians for medical care nationally recognized as the standard of care.”

A study from University of Buffalo researchers in the Women’s Health Issues journal finds that doctors practicing in states that restrict abortion are less likely than those in states that allow abortion to have been trained to perform the same early abortion procedures that are used for women experiencing miscarriages early in pregnancy.

It is not uncommon for women to think twice about getting or being pregnant in states with abortion restrictions. The Idaho woman whose videos on TikTok have been viewed hundreds of million of times told ABC News that she won’t be trying to get pregnant again.

The anti-abortion movement once appeared more sensitive to arguments that its policies neglect the needs of women and children. An icon of the anti-abortion movement — Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), who died in 2007 — made a point of partnering with liberal Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) on legislation to expand Medicaid coverage and provide more benefits to address infant mortality in the late 1980s.

Few anti-abortion groups are following that example by pushing policies to make it easier for people to get pregnant, give birth, and raise children. Most of the efforts are under the radar.

This year, Americans United for Life and Democrats for Life of America put out a joint position paper urging policymakers to “make birth free.” Among their suggestions are automatic insurance coverage, without deductibles or copays, for pregnancy and childbirth; eliminating payment incentives for cesarean sections and in-hospital deliveries; and a “monthly maternal stipend” for the first two years of a child’s life.

In a year when Republican lawmakers who support a ban on abortions are pushing for big federal budget cuts, it seems unlikely that a make-birth-free policy will be introduced.

KFF Health News – A Newsroom for Health Issues and Reporting in the U.S. Department of Health, I.D. The Kaiser Health News

KFF Health News, formerly known as Kaiser Health News (KHN), is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.