Abortion bans not only create barriers to health care, like we saw with the closure of the Bristol health clinic, but they also change how doctors and nurses approach treatment, guest columnist Cheryl Hanzik writes.
Living in Bristol at the border of Virginia and Tennessee, you often cross state lines totally unaware. People and commerce travel freely between the cities using both states’ streets and services. Few Virginians and Americans can cross the street in their neighborhood and lose certain rights and freedoms, but the people of Bristol can.
For over thirty years, there was a clinic in Bristol, Tennessee where women received healthcare. Not just abortion care, but check-ups, pap smears, birth control, prenatal care and postpartum care.
After the fall of Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022 — when the United States Supreme Court reversed federal protections for abortion — the clinic was forced to close. Luckily for the residents of Bristol, a new clinic was able to reopen on the Virginia side of the border. But women who relied on clinics like this one elsewhere in Tennessee weren’t as fortunate.
The overturn of Roe v. Wade does not only mean losing a fifty-year personal freedom. Women and families are losing vital services that support their health. Areas where there is a lack of OBGYN providers or resources, known as maternal health care deserts, are getting worse in states with abortion bans. Here in Southwest Virginia especially, we don’t need more barriers to healthcare or fewer doctors.
Bristol’s unique geography has generated international attention, drawn people nationwide for protests and debates and mobilized residents to come together and support one another.
But these are things you’ve likely heard about before. I want to examine this from another angle. As a doctor in biological physics and former college professor, I look toward data and research to form my opinions and aid my understanding. As a mother and a grandmother, it feels especially urgent that we fully understand the implications of abortion bans.
A new study out of Columbia University found that restrictions on abortion care — including bans, mandatory waiting periods, and ultrasound requirements — are associated with measurable increases in rates of preventable maternal mortality.
Let’s dive deeper. Why is this happening? Abortion bans not only create barriers to health care, like we saw with the closure of the Bristol health clinic, but they also change how doctors and nurses approach treatment.
For example, when someone comes into the hospital after having a miscarriage, they might need an abortion to help the pregnancy pass completely out of their body. This is common. Miscarriage management reduces the risk of complications, like sepsis, that can be caused by fetal tissue remaining in the body and becoming infected.
After abortion bans took effect in Texas, sepsis rates increased by more than 50% for people who were hospitalized after having a miscarriage in their second trimester. Care is now being delayed to the point of serious risk or death, as doctors try to navigate the vague medical emergency exceptions to abortion bans.
I don’t want my doctors to have to wait until I am close enough to death for them to legally treat me.
In Bristol, Virginia, we have an opportunity to share the lessons we have learned from our neighbor state. Across the street in Tennessee, they have some of the most restrictive reproductive health care laws and the highest maternal mortality rates in the country.
In 2014, Tennessee’s constitution was amended to explicitly state that the right to an abortion is not protected. This year, Tennessee lawmakers considered a bill to allow the death penalty as punishment for someone who has an abortion.
This November, Virginia has the opportunity to set the standard for our region by enshrining reproductive freedom into our state constitution. We can ensure medical professionals want to practice here, women and families feel safe accessing care here, and together, we can prevent unnecessary deaths.
