This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm named Tanya Lewis.
The Supreme Court draft opinion was leaked. The opinion will overturn the landmark 1973 ruling that guarantees the right to an abortion. The leaked opinion came as a surprise even though experts were expecting it.
The callousness of the decision is kind of shocking, the idea that the Constitution doesn't protect people's decision-making around something so fundamental to their health and their ability to have children is.
Diana Foster is a professor at the University of California, San Francisco. She led the Turnaway Study, a longitudinal study of nearly 1,000 women who either got them or were turned away because they were past the gestational cutoff.
Some antiabortion activists say that getting an abortion did not harm women. The study found that women who were not able to access abortions saw negative impacts.
Foster says that people who carry pregnancies to term have greater health risks. That is in line with the medical literature. Two women died after giving birth, and we see more problems from childbirth.
The impacts were not limited to health. The negative effects of being denied an abortion were long lasting.
Foster said that after one group gave birth, the people who received abortions and were denied abortions there experienced greater bankruptcies, evictions, and debt than other people.
The outcomes for these women were worse because they weren't able to access an abortion and be forced to carry a baby to term. The Turnaway Study only involved women, but not all people who get pregnant or seek abortions are women.
People who get abortions are not different from people who want kids. Foster and her colleagues found that many of the women who sought abortions later had children when they were ready, and they were more secure.
Foster said that the babies that are born after an abortion do better than the children that were born because their mom was denied an abortion.
If the draft opinion becomes official, it will open the door for states to restrict or ban abortion. 13 states already have so-called "trigger laws" that will take effect when the abortion law is struck down. If pregnant women in these states can't afford an abortion, they will have to travel out of state.
The consequences for those who can't get the care they want will be serious.
Foster said that if the Supreme Court just lets states ban abortions, we're going to see worse physical health, greater economic hardship, and kids raised in more precarious economic circumstances.
Fewer medical providers will be trained to provide abortions as a result of the overturn of Roe. The study found that 45% of ob-gyn residency programs are in states that are likely to ban abortion if the Supreme Court strikes down the law. A similar percentage of ob-gyn residents wouldn't be able to access abortion training.
Jody Steinauer is the director of the Kenneth J. Ryan Residency Training Program.
Steinauer said that medical students and nursing students need to be able to counsel people about their options for pregnant women.
If someone is in a state with a really early abortion limit, they will have to be referred quickly for care.
These laws affect training for other skills, including managing miscarriages.
According to Steinauer, national and international ob-gyn accreditation organizations require that providers know how to empty a uterus, and even if an individual doctor objects to abortion, they need to be able to do one in an emergency to save the parent's life.
This could be important for states that are passing laws that restrict abortions even in the most extreme cases, such as rape or incest.
Steinauer is hoping that the laws will not be able to be enforced without exceptions. We're going to need a lot of the clinics that currently provide care for people to close if a state bans abortions except in very specific circumstances.
The above text is a transcript.
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