Abortion bans are intended to scale back elective abortions, but in addition they affect the way in which doctors practice medicine.
This is a very powerful finding from our latest study published article within the journal Social Science & Medicine.
Medical providers practicing in states which have implemented abortion bans after 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health The Supreme Court's decisions force patients to balance the needs of their pregnant patients against the chance that providers may very well be prosecuted for treating those patients. This dilemma has serious and far-reaching consequences.
We surveyed 22 medical providers working in reproductive health across Tennessee within the six months following the implementation of the state's full abortion ban in 2022.
Providers spoke to our team in regards to the must protect themselves from criminal liability and told us they were becoming increasingly hesitant to offer their patients with the care they need.
Why it matters
This was revealed by a ProPublica investigation from 2024 At least two women have died in Georgia as a consequence of the denial of medical care as a consequence of the implementation of those abortion bans. Almost all of our interviewees expressed their fear of such deaths.
Providers told us that patients often consider these bans include exceptions when the pregnant person's health is in danger, but that will not be at all times true in practice.
The Abortion ban in Tennessee allows an “exception for situations in which abortion is necessary to prevent the death of a pregnant woman or to avert the serious risk of significant and irreversible impairment of important bodily functions.”
The problem is that such cases are rarely clear-cut. And for healthcare providers, the stakes are very high. In certain states, including Tennessee, whether it is found that that they had an abortion without imminent danger to the mother's life or health, they may face criminal charges that might lead to several years in prison.
In interviews, providers described many cases during which an abortion is medically essential for the pregnant person. Take cases of premature birth premature rupture of membranesa condition during which a pregnant person's water ruptures before 37 weeks of pregnancy. Serious complications can occur after a premature rupture of the membranes, especially in cases where labor doesn’t begin.
The standard treatment for this condition is to induce labor to stop such potential medical complications. However, whether it is an early pregnancy and the fetus would likely not survive outside the uterus, this treatment is now discouraged because the law doesn’t sufficiently make clear what interventions are permitted to guard the pregnant person.
In many cases, the physical harm suffered by the pregnant person correlates with the extent of legal protection a medical provider receives.
Although doctors are trained to follow best practices around healthcare, fear of malpractice allegations results in this widely documented practice of defensive medicineCases during which providers either over-test or avoid risk to avoid malpractice lawsuits.
Abortion bans significantly exacerbate this dynamic because they often include the specter of criminal prosecution, which will not be covered by skilled liability insurance. This exposes providers to a brand new type of risk that impacts the way in which providers interact with patients and deliver care.
Our team calls this latest type of defensive medicine “hesitant medicine.” Providers are forced to place their very own legal protections ahead of their patients' well-being and are due to this fact reluctant to offer the treatment patients need. The reluctance is compounded by prohibitions that make it unclear when a provider can intervene within the event of a pregnancy complication.
What's next?
It will probably be years before researchers have data that shows a whole picture of how abortion bans affect women's reproductive health. However, our interviews show that these bans are already influencing the way in which providers treat pregnant women.
A majority of our respondents had considered moving to a state with no ban on abortion in order that they may practice medicine and be far less stressed in regards to the risk of criminal prosecution. a trend that’s already emerging. Over time, this exodus of providers could exacerbate the issue Health desert problem within the United States.
To mitigate a few of this harm, more effort is required by medical groups, employers and legislators to make clear or revise Tennessee's Human Life Protection Act to higher protect women's health.
image credit : theconversation.com