Giving Compass' Take:
- Abortion bans are causing an increasing amount of OB-GYNs to leave the field, causing fewer opportunities for domestic abuse screenings.
- While there is limited data on this topic, doctors are concerned that these patients are less likely to be appropriately screened or receive adequate care.
- Read about the link between reproductive justice and gender justice.
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As more abortion bans have gone into effect across the country, it has become far more difficult to perform a standard element of gynecological care: screening patients for domestic abuse.
Research shows that OB-GYNs are often the first or only doctors to learn if a patient is facing intimate partner violence. While women of all ages experience intimate partner violence, it is most prevalent among women of reproductive age, the people most likely to see an OB-GYN. Meanwhile, abortion bans have contributed to reproductive health care providers leaving states, retiring early or declining to practice where the procedure is restricted.
There is little data on the trend, but doctors and experts agree that as a result, people experiencing domestic violence are less likely to be appropriately screened — let alone connected to resources or support.
The impact is particularly visible in Idaho. Reproductive health specialists were already in short supply in the state before Roe v. Wade fell. And the majority of maternal-fetal medicine physicians — doctors who specialize in complex pregnancies — have left the state over the past year, explicitly linking their departure to the state’s punitive abortion law, which treats provision of abortion as a felony, only allows the procedure if it is necessary to save a patient’s life, and still requires physicians to defend themselves in court for providing such care.
So the number of providers who are screening for intimate partner violence is dwindling. And those who remain in the state will be forced to take on larger patient loads, leaving less time for such complex conversations, some physicians fear.
“We’re creating conditions in this state where it’s going to be more and more difficult for someone to come forward for help,” said Kelly Miller of the Idaho Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence.
Read the full article about abortion bans' impact on domestic violence by Jennifer Gerson and Shefali Luthra at The19th.