Shuttering abortion clinics worsens maternal mortality rates
A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association reveals a disturbing reality: between 1999 and 2019, the maternal mortality rate in the U.S. more than doubled. Experts agree that the crisis is certain to get worse under the new anti-abortion regimes that have emerged since the overturning of Roe v. Wade last year. Dr. Jamila Perritt, an OBGYN and President and CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health, says abortion access cannot be meaningfully separated from comprehensive health care access, and that removing it has ripple effects on the entire healthcare system, placing millions of women at risk. “We know that abortion clinics and family planning clinics in our communities have for decades served as a social safety net. It is often a place where folks can go and be cared for by folks who speak their same language, who understand their culture, who look like them.”