US abortion restrictions are causing widespread harm

Evidence is mounting that in the two years since the US Supreme Court removed constitutional protection for abortion in the ruling on Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the harms to women, pregnant people, children, and their care providers continue to increase and are lethal. A new study shows that SB8, Texas’s post-Dobbs stringent abortion law, has resulted in a nearly 13% increase in infant deaths in the state.1 Self-managed abortions, including unsafe methods, have increased by 40% since Dobbs, especially among people from Black or sexual and gender minority groups.2 The Dobbs ruling targets people and providers already under attack from decades of disinvestment in sexual and reproductive health, failure to expand Medicaid, the chilling effect of the domestic gag rule, and targeted regulation on abortion provider laws.3

Restricting access to abortion has consistently been shown to cause serious harm, including increased maternal mortality (overall and for vulnerable subgroups)4; intimate partner violence and homicide5; increased anxiety, chronic pain, pre-eclampsia, and postpartum haemorrhage; higher odds of poverty and unemployment6; and …