More women of reproductive age commit suicide when abortion access is limited in the United States, suggesting a link between restrictions on legal termination of pregnancy and suicide risk, according to a study published Wednesday in JAMA Psychiatry.
The authors of the research analyzed suicide data
and they crossed them with the anti-abortion laws
passed statewide since 1974 - a year after the Supreme Court issued its decision in Roe v.
Wade, which until this year served as a legal precedent for the protection of abortion - until 2016.
They found that in territories
where laws restricting the procedure were passed, there was a
"significant increase"
in suicides among women of reproductive age, explained Jonathan Zanberg, one of the study authors, in a statement.
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Zanberg, who works in the finance department at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, had already shown in a previous study that
limiting access to abortion lowers women's job aspirations.
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The authors believe their findings have clear implications for public health and policy, especially after the Supreme Court's ruling in Roe v.
Wade, thereby removing the constitutional protection of abortion.
Strict abortion restrictions are associated with poorer access to health care for pregnant and lactating women
Recently, another report revealed that states with more abortion restrictions suffer higher maternal and infant mortality.
Analysis by the Commonwealth Fund, an independent research organization focused on health policy, finds that strict restrictions on abortion are associated with poorer access to health care for pregnant and lactating women, which in turn increases the risk of poor outcomes. Negatives such as mental health problems and death.
[These are the laws on abortion in the rest of the world: in which countries is it easier and which are more restrictive?]
According to the report, states that severely restricted access to abortion in 2020 suffered maternal mortality rates 62% higher than states where abortion was more accessible.
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And another study from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) details how restricting the reproductive rights of women in the United States
disproportionately affects Hispanic women,
since a greater portion of them are of reproductive age than women of other races or ethnic groups, because more of them are moving or emigrating to states that most restrict abortion rights, and because more women of reproductive age in those states are Latinas than non-Hispanic white women.
[Why Latinas Are Hardest Hit by Recent US Abortion Ban: Study Provides More Details]
Latinas “are a unique and particularly young population, and in a post-
Roe v.
Wade
, that means that reproductive justice will be an urgent problem that women in states that restrict abortion will suffer,” Josefina Flores Morales, PhD in sociology from UCLA and lead author of that study, explained to Telemundo News.
Following the high court's decision, a large number of conservative-ruled states decided to ban the procedure, and some Democratic politicians have long warned that Republican lawmakers in Congress could try to take advantage of the situation to ban abortion nationwide.
“Regardless of what you take on all of this, it's in the news, it's everywhere.
T
he women who internalize these stories are those who will be most affected by these restrictions”
, explained Rebecca Waller, another of the authors of the study published this Wednesday, according to the Efe agency.
If you or someone
you know may be at risk,
call
the suicide prevention hotline
1-888-628-9454
, which offers free, confidential support
in Spanish
24 hours a day, seven days a week.