In the 11 months since the bans have been in place, Idaho has seen OB-GYNs, nurses, midwives and other staff speak out about these challenges. They’ve made difficult decisions to leave for states where they felt they could practice without the threat of criminal penalties. Multiple hospitals in Idaho have closed maternity units in part … Read more
Reproductive health has been hit particularly hard. According to the Alabama Department of Public Health, only 16 of Alabama’s 54 rural counties have hospitals providing obstetric services. Seven counties have no hospitals at all. As of 2020, 40 percent of the state was considered a “maternity care desert” with virtually no access to services in … Read more
States with abortion bans could drive away young doctors, especially OB-GYNs, survey finds The reluctance to be a medical resident — young doctors who train in hospitals or clinics after graduating medical school — in states with abortion bans could further strain health care shortages in many parts of the country. Read more at NBC … Read more
Meanwhile, more than 2.2 million women of childbearing age live in maternity care deserts, or areas where there’s a lack of maternity resources, including hospitals and birth centers offering obstetric care, according to a 2022 report by March of Dimes. According to the report, 16 percent of Black babies were born in areas with limited … Read more
Data released last fall by the infant and maternal health nonprofit March of Dimes also shows that more than 2.2 million women of childbearing age across 1,119 US counties are living in “maternity care deserts,” meaning their counties have no hospitals offering obstetric care, no birth centers and no obstetric providers. Read more at CNN … Read more
States that have banned or restricted abortion access in the wake of the Roe v. Wade overturn also have higher rates of maternal mortality and infant death — especially among women of color — compared with states where abortion remains accessible. That’s according to a new report from The Commonwealth Fund published Wednesday. Read more … Read more
Many of these babies will be born in states that already have the worst maternal- and child-health outcomes in the nation. Although the existence of these children is the goal of the anti-abortion movement, America is unprepared to adequately care for them and the people who give birth to them. Read more at The Atlantic … Read more
The woman’s doctor in Tennessee, Leilah Zahedi-Spung, is a high-risk obstetrician who spoke to the WSJ for a story about how abortion bans impact medical emergencies. Zahedi-Spung said the patient was in her second trimester when her blood pressure began rising; the fetus had been diagnosed with genetic abnormalities and wasn’t expected to survive. Zahedi-Spung … Read more
Doctors are on the frontlines of this chaotic landscape, fearful of running afoul of ever-changing law, in some cases struggling to provide life-saving care. In most cases, doctors have stayed in abortion-restrictive states, because despite restrictions on their medical practice, they have ties to their patients, their communities, their families. But others have decided to … Read more
All told, about 900 Americans died in 2020 from complications related to childbirth. Another 50,000 or more women experienced severe pregnancy-related complications. Four of five of those deaths were from preventable causes. In terms of scale and rate, America’s maternal mortality dwarfs the issues of other wealthy countries, and these gaps in maternity care shoulder … Read more
