Women's Health Commons^™

The Impact Of Us Abortion Policy On Rheumatology Clinical Practice: A Cross-Sectional Survey Of Rheumatologists, Bonnie L. Bermas, Irene Blanco, Rosalind Ramsey-Goldman, Ashira D. Blazer, Megan E.B. Clowse, Cuoghi Edens, Greer Donley, Leslie Pierce, Catherine Wright, Mehret Birru Talabi

Articles

In June of 2022, the US Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health overturned Roe v Wade, finding that there was no federal constitutional right to abortion. Subsequently, almost one third of states have near-total abortion bans in effect. Our team distributed a confidential web-based survey to a sample of US-based rheumatologists to assess how the Dobbs decision is affecting the clinical care of reproductive-age females with rheumatic diseases (RMDs), including teratogen prescribing, pregnancy termination referrals, and rheumatologists’ perceived vulnerability to criminalization.

Abortion Pills, David S. Cohen, Greer Donley, Rachel Rebouché

Articles

Abortion is now illegal in roughly a third of the country, but abortion pills are more widely available than ever before. Though antiabortion advocates and legislators are attacking pills with all manner of strategies, clinics, websites, and informal networks are openly facilitating the distribution of abortion pills, legally and illegally, across the United States. This Article is the first to explain this defining aspect of the post-Roe environment and the novel issues it raises at the level of state law, federal policy, and on-the-ground advocacy.

This Article first details antiabortion strategies to stop pills by any means necessary. These tactics …

The New Abortion Battleground, David S. Cohen, Greer Donley, Rachel Rebouché

Articles

This Article examines the paradigm shift that is occurring now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade. Returning abortion law to the states has spawned perplexing legal conflicts across state borders and between states and the federal government. This article emphasizes how these issues intersect with innovations in the delivery of abortion, which can now occur entirely online and transcend state boundaries. The interjurisdictional abortion wars are coming, and this Article is the first to provide the roadmap for the immediate aftermath of Roe’s reversal and what lies ahead.

Judges and scholars, and most recently the Supreme …

Re-Thinking Strategy After Roe, David S. Cohen, Greer Donley, Rachel Rebouché

Articles

The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturns nearly fifty years of precedent and radically changes abortion law, throwing both sides of the debate into uncharted territory. This essay, published in the immediate aftermath of Dobbs, offers some initial thoughts about what the changed legal landscape means for abortion rights legal advocacy. Our focus in recent writings has been to identify concrete measures federal and state actors can take to secure abortion access after Dobbs. Here, we investigate a more overarching concern: what fundamental values and strategies should govern the abortion rights movement going …

Medication Abortion Exceptionalism, Greer Donley

Articles

Restrictive state abortion laws garner a large amount of attention in the national conversation and legal scholarship, but less known is a federal abortion policy that significantly curtails access to early abortion in all fifty states. The policy limits the distribution of mifepristone, the only drug approved to terminate a pregnancy so long as it is within the first ten weeks. Unlike most drugs, which can be prescribed by licensed healthcare providers and picked up at most pharmacies, the Food and Drug Administration only allows certified providers to prescribe mifepristone, and only allows those providers to distribute the drug to …

The Legal And Medical Necessity Of Abortion Care Amid The Covid-19 Pandemic, Greer Donley, Beatrice Chen, Sonya Borrero

Articles

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, states have ordered the cessation of non-essential healthcare. Unfortunately, many conservative states have sought to capitalize on those orders to halt abortion care. In this short paper, we argue that abortion should not fall under any state’s non-essential healthcare order. Major medical organizations recognize that abortion is essential healthcare that must be provided even in a pandemic, and the law recognizes abortion as a time-sensitive constitutional right. Finally, we examine the constitutional arguments as to why enforcing these orders against abortion providers should not stand constitutional scrutiny. We conclude that no public health purpose …

The Maternal Health Behaviours Of Non-Irish Nationals During Pregnancy And The Effect Of Time Living In Ireland, R. Palmer, R. Layte, John Kearney

Articles

Objectives Maternal health behaviours (MHBs) can influence pregnancy outcomes. Despite efforts internationally to encourage positive MHBs, women often fail to comply with pregnancy guidelines. International studies show differences in MHBs between nationalities and an effect of time spent in the host country. There is limited Irish data in this area, with no previous research relating to the effect of time in Ireland.

Study design This study is a cross-sectional analysis of the Growing Up in Ireland infant cohort, a nationally representative longitudinal study. Methods Examination of the MHBs of non-Irish nationals during pregnancy and the effect of time in Ireland …