In states with strict abortion policies, simply seeing an OB/GYN for regular care can be difficult
States with strict abortion bans have worse health outcomes for pregnant women, according to a new report from the Commonwealth Fund.
The chances that a woman can see a doctor while pregnant — or during a time when she might become pregnant — have fallen significantly since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, according to a new report released Thursday.
The findings, from The Commonwealth Fund, a nonpartisan health care research foundation, show that women living in states with a history of health disparities — often in the Southeast — are affected the most. They are not only less likely to be able to afford a doctor’s appointment; they’re less likely to be able to find an OB/GYN in their area.
“These inequities are long-standing, no doubt,” Dr. Joseph Betancourt, president of The Commonwealth Fund, said during a media briefing Wednesday to discuss the report. “But recent policy choices and judicial decisions restricting access to reproductive care have and may continue to exacerbate them.”
The report looked at more than a dozen measures of women’s health care, including maternal mortality, preterm birth and postpartum depression, in all 50 states in 2022, the year of the Dobbs ruling.
That single action “significantly altered both access to reproductive health care services and how providers are able to treat pregnancy complications in the 21 states that ban or restrict abortion access,” the authors wrote.
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