Beyond Abortion: Here's How Roe V. Wade Overturning Will Affect Reproductive Healthcare
KEY FACTS
1. According
to experts, many of the techniques and medications used to perform abortions in
the U.S. are also essential for healing miscarriages.
2. This
implies that access to these treatments for miscarriage is similarly threatened
by the legal limits on abortion, combined with the anxiety over being charged
with or suspected of aiding one.
3. According
to stories from Texas, where patients who are miscarrying are having trouble
getting their prescription medication, this may impede medical professionals
from providing their patients with the best care possible, Mohapatra cautioned.
4. Abortion
training is a requirement for OB/GYN residency programmes (residents with moral
or religious objections may opt out; if unavailable, it must be provided at
another institution). Widespread abortion prohibitions would significantly
restrict where doctors might receive this training.
5. According
to a study by researchers at UC San Francisco and UCLA, nearly half of
residency programmes are situated in states that are anticipated to outlaw
abortion if Roe v. Wade is overturned. If this occurs, "at most 56 per cent"
of obstetrics and gynaecology residents are anticipated to have access to
abortion training, down from 92 per cent in 2020.
6. Abortion
restrictions may affect the states where OB/GYN specialists choose to live,
train, and work. They may also make it more difficult for states to attract medical
students and residents or to provide them with opportunities to learn outside
of their own state.
Important
Background
After
Roe was overruled, 26 states are likely to restrict abortion, with 13 states
currently having "trigger laws" in place that forbid it or will in
the near future. Healthcare professionals are concerned about the ambiguously
worded legislation and the threshold for when abortion is legal due to the fact
that many only have exceptions for life-threatening medical crises or
situations when the mother's life is in danger. According to the experts, at
least 20 states have introduced bills this year that would restrict or outright
ban abortion pills. If Roe is overturned, this could have an impact on
miscarriages because two of the drugs that are the focus of medication abortion
bans are also used to cause miscarriages. These unexpected repercussions are
already being felt in Texas, where reports of pharmacists refusing to fill
prescriptions for medications indicated for miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies
are being made as a result of the state's restriction on abortion beyond six
weeks and on pharmaceutical abortion.
CONTRA
Those
who oppose abortion rights have refuted claims that overturning Roe will have a
negative effect on maternal healthcare or the capacity of healthcare
professionals, asserting that training for performing miscarriages and treating
ectopic pregnancies is distinct from that for performing abortions even though
some of the same techniques or medications are employed in both cases and that
complications are extremely rare. If Roe is overturned, Dr. Ingrid Skop, senior
fellow and director of medical affairs at the pro-life Charlotte Lozier
Institute, wrote in an email to Forbes that "the ruling will in no way
impact the training of OB/GYNs to perform medically necessary procedures or
impact our ability as OB/GYNs to treat women for complications resulting from
miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy." "Anything else is just
scaremongering,"
IMPRESSIVE
FACT
According
to data published in Demography, if abortion were outlawed statewide in the
U.S., pregnancy-related mortality would rise by around 7% in the first year and
by about 21% in the following years. The impact of a potential surge in unsafe
abortions was not taken into account by the study; it solely compared the
mortality risk of continuing a pregnancy versus having a legal abortion.
ESSENTIAL
QUOTE
According
to Mohapatra, who spoke to Forbes, patients may not immediately notice a
difference in the quality of care provided in jurisdictions that forbid
abortion. It simply must. Hospital medical staff won't always remark, "We
aren't giving you something because of these laws," according to
Mohapatra. Simply put, "It won't be offered."
In
a case involving Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban and whether or not states
can limit the procedure even before a foetus is viable, the Supreme Court
overruled Roe v. Wade on Friday. In his opinion, Justice Samuel Alito claimed
that Roe was "egregiously erroneous" and that the case should be
dismissed because neither the Constitution nor this country's "history and
custom" clearly provide for the right to an abortion. Alito's opinion
received the support of four justices—Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett
Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett—while Chief Justice John Roberts separately
concurred in the decision and the three liberal justices dissented. Politico
published a draught judgement from February that appeared to indicate the court
would take this action and completely overturn Roe. This led to a wave of
protest from pro-choice activists and heightened attempts from states to both
restrict and defend access to abortion.
The draught opinion indicating the Supreme Court may overturn Roe has been roundly condemned by top medical organisations and journals. According to the American Medical Association, the opinion "would lead to government interference in the patient-physician relationship, dangerous intrusion into the practice of medicine, and potentially criminalise care." The House of Delegates of the association, which consists of doctors and medical students, established a policy in June opposing governmental limitations on reproductive healthcare, such as prohibitions on abortion and contraception, calling them "violations of human rights."