["This association is robust—and it has nothing to do with
politics," said one co-author. "Its all backed by the data." ]
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STUDY TIES ABORTION RESTRICTIONS TO ‘SIGNIFICANT’ JUMP IN SUICIDE
RATES FOR YOUNG WOMEN  
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Jessica Corbett
December 28, 2022
Common Dreams [[link removed]]

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_ "This association is robust—and it has nothing to do with
politics," said one co-author. "It's all backed by the data." _

Sonia Glenn from Fairfax, Virginia wears a Statue of Liberty costume
at the rally in Lafayette Square park before the Women's March in
Washington, D.C., to protest the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v.
Wade., Tyrone Turner/WAMU for NPR

 

With abortion currently inaccessible in over a quarter of U.S. states,
peer-reviewed research
[[link removed]] published
Wednesday highlights the impact of cutting off care, revealing that
restricted access is linked to increased suicide risk in young women.

Published in the journal _JAMA Psychiatry_, the analysis of targeted
regulation of abortion providers (TRAP) laws was conducted by four
experts at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the
University of Pennsylvania (Penn).

"Stress is a key contributor to mental health burden and a major
driver of increased suicide risk," said
[[link removed]] study co-author Ran
Barzilay, a child-adolescent psychiatrist and neuroscientist at CHOP
and Penn's Perelman School of Medicine, in a statement.

"We found that this particular stressor—restriction to
abortion—affects women of a specific age in a specific cause of
death, which is suicide," added Barzilay. "That's the 10,000-foot
view."

"Women who experienced the shock of this type of restrictive
legislation had a significant increase in suicide rate."

While the study is based on state-level data from 1974 to 2016, it was
unveiled at a time of heightened fear about abortion access—just six
months after the U.S. Supreme Court reversed
[[link removed]]_Roe
v. Wade_ with _Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization_.

Since that June 24 ruling, "trigger" bans have taken effect and
anti-choice state legislators have escalated efforts to restrict
abortion, blocking millions of people capable of becoming pregnant
from seeking care close to home.

"Abortion is currently unavailable in 14 states, and courts have
temporarily blocked enforcement of bans in eight others as of December
12, 2022," according to
[[link removed]] a
Guttmacher Institute review from last week.

During the years examined by the Penn-CHOP researchers, 21 states
enforced at least one TRAP law.

"We constructed three indices that measure access to reproductive care
by looking at the enforcement of state-level legislation," explained
lead author Jonathan Zandberg of Penn's Wharton School. "Every time a
state enforced a law that was related to reproductive care, we
incorporated it into the index."

After examining suicide rates before and after the laws took effect,
and comparing them to rates elsewhere and broad trends, the
researchers found that "comparatively, women who experienced the shock
of this type of restrictive legislation had a significant increase in
suicide rate," Zandberg said.

The publication notes that during the period studied, annual rates of
death by suicide were 1.4-25.6 per 100,000 women of reproductive
age—the researchers focused on those 20-34—and 2.7-33.2 per
100,000 women of postreproductive age, or 45-64.

For reproductive-aged women, the average suicide death rate when no
TRAP laws were enforced was 5.5 per 100,000, and enforcement of such a
law was associated with a 5.81% higher annual rate—a trend that was
not detected among older women.

A statement from the university points out that the researchers
"examined another common cause of death, motor vehicle death rates,
and saw no effect. Controlling for potential confounders like the
economy and political climate did not change the results."

While acknowledging the limitations of their findings, the researchers
also stressed how rigorious their methods were.

"This association is robust—and it has nothing to do with politics,"
said Barzilay. "It's all backed by the data."

Co-author Rebecca Waller of Penn's Department of Psychology stressed
that "we're looking at the connection between summary data about
causes of death at the state level and policy and politics over many
decades."

"Yet, every death represents an individual moment of tragedy," she
said. "So, there's clearly an awful lot more that we need to
understand about what these findings mean for individual suicide
risk."

"Whatever your view is on all of this, it's all over the news. It's
everywhere," Waller added. "The women internalizing the stories they
hear are the ones who these restrictions will affect the most."

The new findings illustrate just one way abortion restrictions
endanger the lives of people capable of pregnancy.

Research released earlier this month by the Commonwealth Fund shows
[[link removed]] that
"compared to states where abortion is accessible, states that have
banned, are planning to ban, or have otherwise restricted abortion
have fewer maternity care providers; more maternity care 'deserts';
higher rates of maternal mortality and infant death, especially among
women of color; higher overall death rates for women of reproductive
age; and greater racial inequities across their healthcare systems."

That report argues that in partnership with residents and insurance
and medical providers, state leaders can enhance the lives of patients
by fighting for more and higher quality maternity care personnel and
facilities as well as "by adopting the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid
eligibility expansion for low-income adults and extending Medicaid
postpartum coverage to one year."

"Increased federal funding for reproductive healthcare, family
planning, maternity care, and care delivery system transformations
also could mitigate the impact of the _Dobbs_ decision and state
abortion bans on people's lives," the publication adds. "State,
congressional, and executive branch actions are all needed to protect
the health of women and birthing people and ensure optimal and
equitable outcomes for mothers and infants."

_THE 988 SUICIDE & CRISIS LIFELINE—WHICH OFFERS 24/7, FREE, AND
CONFIDENTIAL SUPPORT—CAN BE REACHED BY CALLING OR TEXTING 988, OR
THROUGH CHAT AT 988LIFELINE.ORG [[link removed]]._

_Jessica Corbett is a staff writer for Common Dreams._

* abortion restrictions
[[link removed]]
* suicide
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