Overturning Roe v. Wade Could Have Devastating Health and Financial Impacts, Landmark Study Showed

A leaked draft of a Supreme Court opinion suggests that the court is about to overturn the landmark ruling that guarantees the right to an abortion. The opinion was first reported. If it is issued later this year, almost half of the U.S. states will likely pass laws that will restrict access to the procedure. One of the most comprehensive studies to date shows that those who are denied an abortion and forced to go through with an unwanted pregnancy experience lasting impacts to their health, well-being and finances.

The news of the Supreme Court opinion startled researchers who study reproductive rights.

The Turnaway Study compared women who received an abortion with women who were past the legal gestational cutoff and were denied one. The study found that women who were denied the procedure were more likely to experience negative health impacts. Poor credit, debt and bankruptcy were more likely to be faced by the former. The study did not include people who are pregnant.

Foster spoke to Scientific American about the findings of the Turnaway Study and how it would impact people seeking abortions in this country.

The transcript of the interview has been edited.

What do you think about the leaked draft opinion that suggests the case will be thrown out?

The abortion opinions of the justices are well known, so I was anticipating this decision. The fact that it was leaked is shocking. The idea that the Constitution doesn't protect people's decision-making around something so fundamental as birth control is shocking.

There is division within our country and that is not the principles of our Constitution. It isn't about the division of our country, it's about the well-being of individuals. It is just the wrong motives.

What are the main findings of the Turnaway Study?

The Turnaway Study followed people who sought abortions and those who were denied. It looked at the impact of having access to abortion on people's health and well-being. That is in line with the medical literature. Two women in the study died after giving birth, and we see more problems from childbirth.

Women and families were impacted by being denied an abortion.

We can see economic hardship for people who had a child before they were ready, and we can also see it when we look at their credit reports. We can see that people who sought abortions had the same credit scores prior to the pregnancy, and after one group gave birth, the group denied abortions experienced greater bankruptcies, evictions and debt than other people.

We see more economic hardship for children. People who get an abortion say it's to take care of the kids they already have. The children whose mothers were able to get an abortion are more likely to live in poverty than the children whose mothers were denied an abortion.

People think those seeking an abortion don't want to have kids. Is that true?

People who have abortions want to have children later in life. When a mother is denied an abortion, her babies do better than children who are born because of it, in terms of the mom's emotional bond with the child.

Are the people impacted by restrictive abortion laws more likely to be low income?

Yes.

Do you think the Supreme Court ignores the science?

I don't know. I know that when the case was heard, Supreme Court Justice John Roberts said that it was not a good sign for him to rule on anything but ideological grounds.

Do you have any briefs that cite your research in the current Supreme Court case?

There is a brief by social scientists. There are two others that heavily cite my work, one by public health researchers and the other by economists. The other side has a brief that is just an attempt to take down the Turnaway Study.

They don't understand how common it is and how it can happen to people.

People who had a child they wanted were compared with people who had an abortion. Is that a true comparison?

The people who wanted their child had better outcomes. It's not different people, it's people at different points under different circumstances. If you give someone an abortion, they will be the kind of person who can have a child under certain circumstances. People have to be able to have kids when they are ready.

The paper compares outcomes for people who were forced to carry their pregnancies to term with people who were able to have kids later on. Not all of the subsequent pregnancies were planned in advance. Most of them were not. The economic outcomes were better for that child, and the emotional outcomes were better, because the person decided to carry that pregnancy to term.

Did the women who were denied legal abortions try to get them anyway?

They did not in our study. They traveled a long way and had an abortion somewhere else, or they had a baby. Most of them had the baby because there were very few places that would do abortions.

What impact will the Supreme Court ruling have on pregnant people seeking abortions?

We are going to see worse physical health, greater economic hardship, lower achievement of aspiration plans, and people's lives up if the Supreme Court just lets states ban abortions.