The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago. Since the ruling, 14 states have enacted near-total abortion restrictions, and seven have enacted bans on abortion at six to 18 weeks of gestation. Dr. Avenel Joseph, vice president for policy at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said this has had profound effects on women’s health.
“The data is showing that states that have enacted legislation to restrict abortions based on gestational age have actually increased their maternal mortality rates by nearly 40 percent,” said Joseph.
She said Black women are especially vulnerable.
“More than half of Black women of reproductive age actually live in the very states that have banned or are likely to ban abortion,” Joseph said. “Many of these states are in the South.”
The 2022 Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a case centered around a Mississippi law that sought to ban most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, was the one that resulted in the overturning of Roe v. Wade.