Articles Tagged With: Abortion
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Attacks on Contraception Access Happening in Abortion-Ban States
Faster than most reproductive health providers could have anticipated, some abortion-ban states, politicians, and institutions have attacked contraception access. Some predict a coordinated attack on contraception in 2023 in states that have already toyed with the idea of banning emergency contraception and IUDs.
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Family Planning Providers Struggled with Restrictions, Funding After Title X Gag Rule
Providers at more than 50 family planning facilities in three states reported disruptions and challenges after the 2019 Trump-era rule that changed the federal Title X program.
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Crisis Pregnancy Centers Often Deliver Coercive, Inaccurate Information
People seeking help with a pregnancy decision may see ads for a free pregnancy test and ultrasound and believe they are visiting a medical clinic, where all of their options will be explored. Instead, they will soon discover that they are visiting a center with no licensed medical providers that is designed to convince them not to seek an abortion.
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Cultural Humility and Other Training for Contraceptive Care Providers
Reproductive health providers might believe they provide unbiased contraceptive counseling, but research shows that this is not always the case. A recent study revealed that providers who said they embraced patient-centered care had used negotiating, withholding information, and delaying tactics to prevent patients from removing an IUD early.
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Suggestions for Teaching Staff How to Counsel Without Bias, Persuasion
Research helps inform training tactics for reproductive health staff on providing contraceptive counseling in a way that patients perceive is unbiased and with cultural humility. These methods can establish trust with patients and improve contraceptive care.
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Self-Managed Abortion: A Guide to Harm Reduction and Patient-Centered Care
Even before the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, access to safe, legal abortion within the formal healthcare system was increasingly restricted. In this context, patients may turn to self-managed abortion (SMA). Clinicians should understand the course of SMA, including its overall safety, rare complications, and potential legal risks to patients.
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Ethicists Asked to Weigh in on Medical Necessity of Abortion
If ethicists are asked to weigh in, they should suggest a second medical opinion (if time permits) and encourage the institution to clarify any legal questions, ideally before there is an emergency. Institutions also should assure clinicians they will have support from the ethics committee in the event of overzealous prosecution.
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Abortion Providers and Patients Under Threat of Privacy Breaches
Reproductive health providers and people seeking abortion care need only look at the not-so-distant past in the United States to predict a future in which their privacy is in legal and physical jeopardy. Physicians who perform legal abortions also face privacy breaches that place the providers and families at risk from doxing, threats, and other harms.
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Emergency Providers Scramble to Prepare for Treating More Pregnancy-Related Complications
Now that the Supreme Court has shifted abortion lawmaking decisions to the states, matters for frontline providers have become more complicated in multiple ways. In addition to tracking patchwork laws, providers must be prepared to manage pregnancy- or abortion-related complications that might have been better managed at clinics that provide appropriate services.
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EMTALA Implications if ED Patient Needs Medically Necessary Abortion
It is a mistake for ED providers to be solely focused on what their state abortion law says, without also considering the bigger picture in terms of other legal risks and ethical obligations.