A still from the second season of The Handmaid's Tale (2018).
Roe v. Wade Wade is a landmark case by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973 protecting women's right to abortion and privacy. Through this case, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that a woman's right to abortion is protected by the constitutional right to privacy. At the same time, the Supreme Court has adopted strict "three-stage" review criteria for restrictions on abortion rights. The ruling has been controversial in the decades since it came into effect, especially as conservatives and anti-abortion groups in society have been trying to overturn it. After the verdict, state laws also vary in restrictions on abortion.
On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling overturning the Roe v. Wade judgment, revealing the right to abortion enshrined in the U.S. Constitution for nearly half a century, and leaving the legality of abortion to the federal states to deal with on their own. Since the ruling, public health researchers who have long studied abortion rights have warned that it will exacerbate the economic hardship and health harm of poor women in the United States, who have neither the money to have abortions in states that allow abortions nor the ability to raise newborns. The researchers also predict that the ruling will particularly affect those who are unable to book telehealth services due to a lack of internet access, exacerbating inequality.
A year after the ruling went into effect, 23 percent of U.S. women of childbearing age traveled an increased distance, according to the results of a test. A study underway by the Denver, Colorado-based Society of Family Planning estimates that the average number of abortions has dropped significantly in states like Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas, where abortion is banned. But in nearby states that allow abortions, such as Kansas, the number of abortions has increased by almost the same rate, suggesting that people travel to those places for medical help.
This balancing effect means that the average number of abortions per month in the United States has decreased by about 3 percent. Caitlin Myers, an economist who is tracking abortion rights, said it appears to be a small reduction, but "it means that about one in five to a quarter of people trying to escape 'ban states' for abortion services fail to have their desired abortion and instead choose to continue unwanted pregnancies."
In the year since Roe v. Wade was overturned, the number of abortions per month in U.S. states changed. (Source: Nature magazine, website).
Public health expert Kari White has long been concerned about abortion rights in Texas. Before Roe v. Wade was overturned, the state had passed a law banning abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, a stage at which many pregnant people didn't even realize they were pregnant.
White said that during the six-week ban in effect, people drove in the middle of the night and spent seven hours commuting to and from the same day because they could not afford to take another leave of absence to have an abortion. Now, Texas and some neighboring states have complete bans, sometimes the nearest clinic is 600 miles (about 965 kilometers) away. In addition, because Texas also has many "inland border checkpoints" to monitor illegal immigrants, for some, they cannot travel to seek medical help. Compare to states that allow abortion, before Roe v. Wade was overturned. Many states that ban abortion already have poor maternal and infant health records, especially among people of color and low-income people. She expects this gap to continue to widen.
Researchers are also learning the whole picture by interviewing medical professionals, including a project, Care Post-Roe, which allows doctors, nurses and midwives to anonymously share their stories. The initiative's findings show that some patients with pregnancy complications do not have access to timely treatment in states where abortion is banned. For example, when there is a risk of premature amniotic fluid rupture early in pregnancy (before the fetus can survive on its own), the standard of care is to provide an abortion procedure to prevent life-threatening infections. However, according to medical providers reports, in many cases people have to go home and be told to come back when labor begins or shows signs of infection.
Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020) stills.
In one case, a patient returned to hospital with sepsis and required treatment in an intensive care unit. She delivered the fetus, but surgery to remove the placenta was required. "After all this, patients are still concerned that maybe she did something wrong herself, or that the doctor did something wrong, could put them at risk of prosecution," the researcher said, "and she asked him if the situation was considered 'dangerous enough,' which sounded too shocking." It highlights the fears these laws raise between doctors and patients. ”
The researchers said the long-term impact of Roe v. Wade is still being assessed, and some key information is needed, such as birth data for 2023 that won't be released until next year. The researchers say their goal is to use the data to estimate how many people who are "trapped" forced into childbirth in states where abortion is banned.
Resources:
（1）After Roe v. Wade: dwindling US abortion access is harming health a year later
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02083-w
（2）The effects of overturning Roe v. Wade in seven simple charts
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-02139-3
Compilation / Li Yongbo
Editor/Luo Dong
Proofreader/Liu Baoqing