Articles Tagged With: Abortion
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Ever-Changing Legal Landscape Leaves Providers, Women, and Lawyers on Edge
Reproductive health lawyers nationwide are trying to help women maintain access to abortion and contraception, but the appeals and lawsuits are unending. Lawyers committed to reproductive health causes have filed lawsuits to maintain people’s access to contraception, reproductive healthcare, and abortion care.
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EMTALA Still Poses Challenges After All These Years
EMTALA has encouraged the safe care of emergent patients since 1986, yet it still poses significant compliance challenges and hospitals are cited for violations. Understanding the potential pitfalls and best practices can help healthcare organizations avoid serious consequences.
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Rh Sensitization Following Induced Abortion
In this multicenter, observational, prospective cohort study, flow cytometry was used to detect circulating fetal red blood cells (fRBCs) in maternal blood among 506 participants before and after induced abortion up to 12 weeks’ gestation. Only three participants had elevated fRBCs at baseline, and only one of these had elevated fRBC counts following the abortion, which indicates that first trimester abortion is not a risk factor for Rh sensitization.
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The Studied and Unstudied Dangers of ‘Abortion Reversal’
Colorado’s Senate Bill 190, signed in May 2023, declared the practice of “abortion reversal” to be unprofessional conduct, meaning that healthcare providers providing this treatment could face sanctions to their licensure. However, Colorado’s Medical Board subsequently issued a draft rule declaring “abortion reversal” as “generally accepted standard of practice” and, therefore, potentially acceptable. Clearly, confusion exists among state medical boards and legislatures, and, potentially, among healthcare providers. This commentary will review both the medical evidence regarding “abortion reversal” and the legal context so that providers can be better informed and communicate the best evidence to their patients.
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It May Be Ethical for Providers to Refuse to Comply with Abortion Laws
What should providers do when state law conflicts with their ethical duty to preserve the health and life of a patient? Each provider and healthcare organization has been left to interpret their states’ laws with little guidance and precedence. Some hospitals are sued for not providing care when a pregnant patient’s life was in danger. In other cases, physicians are required to visit their employer’s legal office for permission to save patients’ health and lives. The authors of a new paper defend physician noncompliance with anti-abortion legislation, arguing physicians’ obligations to comply with the law are defeated when the law is illegitimate.
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People Can Safely Self-Manage Medication Abortion After 10 Weeks
Abortion care for women in their late first trimester and second trimester of pregnancy has been abolished in some states — even when the patient’s health or life is at risk during a miscarriage or other pregnancy crisis. As increasing numbers of people turn to self-managed abortion for ending their pregnancies, this option has not been seen as an alternative for U.S. women who are more than 10 weeks pregnant — until now.
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Abortion Bans Lead Physicians, Nurses to Avoid Certain States
Medical students, residents, and practicing OB/GYNs are saying they do not want to train and practice in states with extreme abortion bans, including Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and others. The authors of a recent study found that four in five physicians and trainees preferred to avoid working in states with abortion bans.
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Stress, Burnout, Quitting May Increase in Coming Years
Nurses, physicians, and others who work in reproductive healthcare are under increasing stress and pressure since states began to enforce abortion laws that range from total bans to restrictions on most abortion care. The authors of a recent study found that abortion providers are burdened and affected emotionally when they help people who are turned away from abortion care in their own communities or state.
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Base Permanent Contraception Counseling on Patients’ Preferences
Increasingly, reproductive health providers are meeting with patients who are interested in a permanent contraceptive method. Roadblocks to these procedures include a patient’s personal concerns about the procedure or future regret, as well as insurance/cost concerns, and clinicians who turn them down because they are too young or have no or too few children.
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Permanent Contraception Options More Appealing After Abortion Ruling
The results of recent studies and reports revealed a spike in people seeking permanent contraception procedures in the United States. This trend may be the result of the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which said there was no constitutional right to abortion care.