Document Type
Book Chapter
Publisher
Taylor & Francis, forthcoming
Publication Date
2024
Abstract
Soon after the Supreme Court issued Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization—a case that overturned the right to abortion—roughly a third of the country enacted a total or near-total abortion ban. Women’s healthcare has suffered in a variety of ways as a result. This chapter considers an underappreciated harm of abortion bans: their impact on rheumatology practice. It considers three chilling effects that have resulted from state abortion bans: (1) a hesitation to prescribe rheumatology medications that can cause abortion, like methotrexate; (2) a hesitation to prescribe rheumatology medications with teratogenicity (i.e., those that can cause fetal anomaly), and (3) a hesitation to refer patients to abortion providers out of state. Though liability for these actions is unlikely, the high penalties of abortion bans coupled with aggressive, antiabortion prosecutors, have created a culture of fear that has intruded into the practice of medicine, harming patients far beyond reproductive healthcare.
Recommended Citation
Greer Donley,
The Impact of Dobbs on Rheumatology Practice,
Interdisciplinary Rheumatology: Reproductive Health Issues in Rheumatology
(2024).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.pitt.edu/fac_book-chapters/54
Included in
Bioethics and Medical Ethics Commons, Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Health Law and Policy Commons, Law and Gender Commons, Law and Society Commons, Medical Jurisprudence Commons, Rheumatology Commons, Sexuality and the Law Commons