Public Health Impact of Legal Termination of Pregnancy in the US: 40 Years Later

Abstract

During the 40 years since the US Supreme Court decision in Doe versus Wade and Doe versus Bolton, restrictions on termination of pregnancy (TOP) were overturned nationwide. The use of TOP was much wider than predicted and a substantial fraction of reproductive age women in the U.S. have had one or more TOPs and that widespread uptake makes the downstream impact of any possible harms have broad public health implications. While short-term harms do not appear to be excessive, from a public perspective longer term harm is conceiving, and clearly more study of particular relevance concerns the associations of TOP with subsequent preterm birth and mental health problems. Clearly more research is needed to quantify the magnitude of risk and accurately inform women with the crisis of unintended pregnancy considering TOP. The current US data-gathering mechanisms are inadequate for this important task.

Epidemiología del aborto y su prevención en Chile

“…Modelo a Finalmente, es necesario remarcar, que los cambios de estatus legal no están enfocados en la prevención del aborto provocado, sino solamente en facilitar su acceso dependiendo de la permisividad del tipo de legislación [6,7,9]. Tampoco resuelven el problema de vulnerabilidad específica que motiva un aborto provocado, como la coerción o el miedo.…”

“…La mortalidad por aborto ha experimentado una reducción continua en los últimos 50 años [3], al punto que la muerte por aborto provocado ha llegado a ser un fenómeno excepcional en términos epidemiológicos (riesgo de 1 en 4 millones de mujeres en edad fértil o 0,4 por 100.000 nacidos vivos para cualquier tipo de aborto excluyendo embarazo ectópico). Luego del cambio de ley en 1989 [4], las muertes por aborto continuaron disminuyendo, desde 10,8 hasta 0,39 por 100.000 nacidos vivos (Figura 1), lo cual, como materia de hecho científico, desafía la noción que una legislación menos permisiva conduce a mayor mortalidad por aborto [3,[5][6][7].…”

Adjunctive Agents for Cervical Preparation in Second Trimester Surgical Abortion

“…This small subset of abortions is often the result of fetal or maternal pregnancy complications, which can be emotionally challenging; patients value the ability to discuss all management options, including both medical and surgical pregnancy termination, with their provider [1]. Most of these abortions will be accomplished surgically by dilation and evacuation (D&E), a safe and efficient method of pregnancy termination [2]. As gestational age advances, the amount of dilation required for safe and facile removal of fetal parts increases, increasing the risk of cervical laceration.…”

Population, Reproductive, and Sexual Health: Data Are Essential Where Disciplines Meet and Ideologies Conflict

“…Questions such as what are the health sequelae of elective abortion? ( 26 , 27 ), under what circumstances may promotion of different types of contraception decrease or increase the incidence of elective abortion? ( 28 , 29 ), what are positive or negative consequences of contraceptive policy that privileges long-acting reversible contraceptives?…”