Bills exclude mental health from emergency abortion exceptions

Two data points that emerged in the wake of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision paint a picture of the impact of this decision on mental health.

First: Preliminary data, Roe v. It shows that states that enacted abortion bans after the Wade case was overturned had higher rates of self-reported mental health problems, especially among the less affluent.

Second: Lawmakers in these states are increasingly reluctant to include mental health concerns or psychological conditions in the list of reasons that would justify legal, emergency abortion.

Many of the psychological effects of state bans are linked to socioeconomic status, according to research by Brad Greenwood, a professor of information systems and operations management at George Mason University’s Costello School of Business, published in the journal Science Advances in July. Less educated and less affluent people have self-reported mental health conditions that are “clearly worse” than average.

“Once you get above six-figure income, it has no impact,” Greenwood said, adding that there are “no significant differences” based on gender assigned at birth, race, age, marital status and sexual orientation.

His study suggests that some of this may be because wealthier subjects can more easily travel out of state to receive the procedure.

The increase comes as lawmakers increasingly make clear that so-called “emergency exceptions” that allow legal abortions can include physical conditions but not psychological or other mental health problems.

Since January, lawmakers have introduced at least three bills that include language that would exclude mental health as a medical emergency that could require abortion care.

These bills included two that would require patients’ informed consent about risks and other details before having an abortion.

These bills would provide exceptions to save the life of a pregnant person and to prevent “significant and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function, excluding the psychological or emotional states of the pregnant woman.”

Another House bill would ban some abortion measures under United States law. It contains nine separate examples of this phrase: “A life-threatening physical condition, including but not psychological or emotional conditions, caused by pregnancy.”

Since CQ Roll Call’s initial legal analysis of state abortion laws began in December, lawmakers in 10 states — New Jersey, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Idaho, Kentucky, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Florida — have been particularly concerned about abortion. They submitted 17 bills regulating their laws. Leave mental health emergencies out of the language by allowing exceptions for emergencies.

Of those 10 states, only Tennessee has passed the law. The state is in the midst of litigation over a separate law that would ban most abortions, barring mental health emergencies.