Researchers from UT Austin and the University of California San Francisco found doctors were in the months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. That 2022 decision in meant that there weren鈥檛 any federal protections for abortion, and states got to decide their own laws around abortion access.
Kari White is part of UT Austin鈥檚 social work school and the lead investigator of the Texas Policy Evaluation Project (TxPEP), . She coauthored the study. She said the impact of abortion legislation on care in Texas started back in 2021, with the passing of Senate Bill 8, the six-week abortion ban.
鈥淲e had already seen poor quality care, compromised care, following the implementation of SB 8,鈥� White said. 鈥淲ith many other states implementing six-week bans that had also very narrow exemptions for the circumstances under which abortion was provided, we knew that we were likely to see more of these cases.鈥�
White and other researchers gathered stories from 50 physicians from states with abortion bans, like Oklahoma, South Dakota and Texas. They found that pregnant patients with bleeding complications, ectopic pregnancies and early miscarriages all had worse outcomes because doctors were concerned that providing care would go against the law.
鈥淚t鈥檚 another example of the ways in which a variety of pregnancy experiences are being pulled into the dragnet of these abortion bans and compromising health care for people,鈥� White said.
Doctors recounted patients having to travel to other states to get care, or who were refused care outright by colleagues.
鈥淭hey are being forced to watch their patients get sicker before they can intervene,鈥� White said. 鈥淪ome of the clinicians are in tears about their inability to provide care or seeing the very real risk of a patient dying in front of them鈥s a result of these laws.鈥�
Two doctors and five patients are also suing the state of Texas because they were denied access to abortions when experiencing medical emergencies during their pregnancies.
White also wants to underline that these bans also usually are connected to states with worse maternal health outcomes, like Texas. It has one of the According to the state鈥檚 , 90% of maternal deaths in 2019 were preventable, and due to factors like serious bleeding and mental health conditions.
鈥淧eople are already have poor health when they鈥檙e becoming pregnant, and are trying to seek care in a service and policy environment that is unable to provide them with the best possible care,鈥� she said.
It鈥檚 something Dr. Ghazaleh Moayedi in Dallas has had to navigate as .
鈥淢y job radically changed before Dobbs, since SB 8,鈥� she said. 鈥淔or us in Texas, that had been the critical point. Dobbs was just more fuel on the fire.鈥�
She said she had been traveling out of state to Oklahoma after SB 8 to care for patients, but stopped for a while because she wasn鈥檛 sure if she鈥檇 be arrested for taking care of Texans in other states. She鈥檚 not the only person grappling with this.
鈥淚鈥檓 still seeing physicians telling people they can鈥檛 take care of them, not wanting to intervene, discharging people and telling them not to come back,鈥� she said. 鈥淓ven in the setting of clear policies, among physicians there鈥檚 a lot of confusion about what to be doing.鈥�
Last summer, she thought about leaving Texas, but wasn鈥檛 sure if another state would be any better. She decided to stay to continue advocating for what she believes in.
鈥淚鈥檓 focusing on what can I do here, from my position point in Dallas, in Texas, to make the future we all deserve possible,鈥� Dr. Moayedi said. 鈥淢aybe I鈥檓 not going to ever be able to provide abortion care in Texas again, but certainly if folks like me just leave, we鈥檒l never have abortion care.鈥�
Doctors owe it to their patients to understand the political and historical contexts they鈥檙e operating in, said Dr. Moayedi, to support their needs.
鈥淗ealth care is not apolitical,鈥� she said. 鈥淚f we don鈥檛 understand history, if we don鈥檛 critically understand the context of the care that we provide, we鈥檙e going to participate in harm. Our history as a medical profession is , so it is important that we educate ourselves and understand that history so we can disrupt it.鈥�
Got a tip? Email Elena Rivera at erivera@kera.org. You can follow Elena on Twitter .
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