COVID-19 Abortion Bans and Their Implications for Public Health.

Abstract

The American Public Health Association (APHA) has long recognized that access to abortion is a fundamental right and an important component of comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care. 1 However, under the guise of trying to protect the U.S. public during the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of states have called this right into question. Some politicians have attempted to exploit the current public health crisis to further prohibit or limit access to abortion care, claiming that it is nonessential and that medical resources and personal protective equipment (PPE) need to be redirected to other medical needs and procedures. It is too soon to measure the public health impact of these new and proposed abortion bans. Indeed, even trying to identify the states in which these bans are in eff ect is a moving target, as many states’ attempts to undermine abortion care have been blocked by litigation that has forced these controversial eff orts into the courts. But we can draw on what we know from prior attempts to ban or otherwise limit access to abortion in the United States to anticipate the public health impact of these policies. In this viewpoint, we focus on a well-established body of scientifi c evidence to identify the potential public health implications of the bans on both the individuals seeking abortions and the clinics that provide this care.