At least six states have used the COVID-19 crisis as an opportunity to ban or severely limit abortion. Declining economic well-being. A pregnancy cannot be delayed, and restrictive state-level bans already limit abortion access after the first trimester. Yet governments across the country are calling abortion an elective surgery that must be delayed.
Families are already suffering. Thirty million people have filed for unemployment so far, with consumer spending decreasing each week. Banning abortion guarantees that women will be forced to birth and raise children they don’t want, can’t afford, or are unable to care for. This ensures the suffering will last at least a generation, and much longer. Here are eight ways the reverberations of this ban will extend will beyond the immediate crisis.
More maternal deaths
Being pro-life is incompatible with being anti-choice because abortion saves lives. For decades, research has shown us that banning abortion doesn’t stop it. It just makes it less safe. In some cases, abortion bans may even increase the abortion rate.
The United States boasts the worst maternal mortality rate in the wealthy world. Hundreds of women die giving birth each year. Tens of thousands more nearly die, or experience debilitating lifelong complications. When women can’t get abortions, the maternal mortality rate rises because the people who are least equipped to have children also have the fewest options for accessing quality healthcare.
Worldwide, unsafe abortions are a leading cause of maternal deaths. And soon, the U.S. might see a rise in abortion-related deaths from women who seek to self-induce. One recent study found that, in the wake of restrictive abortion legislation, 8 percent of Texas women attempted to perform abortions on themselves.
The Turnaway Study, which compares women denied abortions to women who succeed in getting them, proves a clear link between abortion restrictions and maternal death. One percent of women in the study who could not get abortions died of pregnancy-related causes. That compares to a national maternal mortality rate of 0.02 percent.
Worse economic well-being
Anti-choicers ban abortion while claiming they’re eager to get people back to work because of concerns about the economy. The reality is that abortion access improves both personal finances and the larger economy. Seventy-three percent of women who seek abortions say they cannot afford to have a child. Study after study has linked abortion access to improved economic well-being. The Turnaway Study, which follows women denied abortions and compares them to women who had abortions, consistently finds that women who have abortions fare better economically. Those denied abortions are more likely to fall into poverty.
Increased domestic violence
Domestic violence is a leading cause of pregnancy-related death. Research shows shockingly high rates of abuse among pregnant women, and suggests that abuse is more likely to happy during pregnancy than at any other time in a woman’s life. One study found that 66 percent of pregnant people experience some form of abuse, with 14 percent facing severe violence.
Stressed people with little self-control attack those they perceive as weaker—including pregnant spouses. Preliminary evidence suggests that COVID-19 has already increased intimate partner violence. If women are denied abortions, rates could skyrocket. Worse still, the evidence shows us that being denied an abortion is itself a risk factor for domestic violence.
Worse mental health
Anti-choice activists love to spread fear about so-called post-abortion trauma. This diagnosis is a myth. Instead, an overwhelming body of evidence links abortion to better mental health. Women who can get abortions are less likely to suffer from depression, anxiety, PTSD, addiction, and other mental health diagnoses. Moreover, suicide is a leading cause of postpartum death, establishing pregnancy as a risk factor for suicide.
Child abuse
The children of women denied abortions fare worse than their peers on many measures. They’re also more likely to be abused. During a national lockdown, children are trapped in homes with their parents, which means the most vulnerable children are already facing epidemic levels of abuse. Expose their mothers to the stress of an unwanted pregnancy, throw a child the family can’t afford into the mix, and severe abuse seems an inevitability.
A more crowded health system
The maternity care system is already strained to the breaking point. On virtually every measure of care quality, American labor units do worse than those in other countries. The result is catastrophic: a woman giving birth today in the United States is more likely to die than her mother was a generation ago. Our maternal mortality rate has skyrocketed while other nations have seen maternal mortality rates fall to nearly zero.
The pandemic has strained the health system even more. Forcing women to give birth in an already taxed health system doesn’t just harm them and their families. It reduces access to care for everyone, especially in hospitals where health providers do double duty in emergency and maternity departments.
Worse outcomes for men
A man is involved in every unwanted pregnancy. Yet we continue to treat abortion as a women’s issue—and as a niche, fringe concern that politicians can ignore at will. The reality is that abortion is important for men’s well-being, too. A 2019 study found that the benefits of abortion for adolescent men last for decades beyond the abortion. Men whose partners seek abortions following an unwanted pregnancy earn more and complete more education.
A new normal
Perhaps the scariest consequence of all is that the bans might not be temporary. Governments rarely seize rights and then give them back without a fight. The shuttering of abortion clinics, tighter restrictions on minors’ access to abortion, and increased government intrusion into women’s bodies may become a new normal. The states banning abortion know this. They’ve always sought an incremental approach to destroying the right to bodily autonomy, and the coronavirus offered the perfect opportunity.
The anti-choice war on women’s bodies has never been about life. These are, after all, the same people who have pushed vulnerable citizens to return to work amid a pandemic. They’re the same people who oppose every strategy that could lower the abortion rate, every social safety net for families and children. They’re also the ones who divert resources for impoverished children to fake clinics that lie to women about abortion. These extremists now have the chance to use anti-abortion legislation to kill women and destroy families for generations.
Don’t let them do more damage than they’ve already done.