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Health Equity in a Post 'Roe Versus Wade' America

Byron JJ, Avalos M, Xiao KA, Klein AA, Leheste JR

Cureus, 2022

Abstract

For almost five decades, the US Supreme Court had protected the right to abortion care in the United States. However, the Court's decision in 'Dobbs versus Jackson Women's Health Organization' in 2022 established that the US Constitution does not confer a right to abortion, effectively overturning the Court's own previous judgment in 'Roe versus Wade' from 1973. How could a decision that overturns the precedent for nationwide access to abortion affect women, children, and physicians? How will state laws impact healthcare equity regarding reproductive rights going forward? How will geography affect who can access care financially, and how will this shape the conditions that unwanted children are born into? This work is a systematic analysis of the impact of overturning 'Roe versus Wade' considering the scientific and medical evidence as well as the conflicting political and moral viewpoints regarding abortion. Furthermore, we make constructive recommendations with a view to detoxifying the inflammatory rhetoric surrounding this topic and protecting key stakeholders such as patients seeking abortion and their physicians. The moment 'Roe v. Wade' was overturned, several US states began to enact laws, both protecting and restricting abortion. California and New York, for example, have since enacted laws that extend protection to both patients seeking abortion and the physicians who provide it. Oklahoma and Texas, on the other hand, have enacted laws that make it more difficult…

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