Abortion Bans and Pregnancy-Related Care Across Physician Specialties

How are state-level total abortion bans associated with abortion-adjacent clinical care and patient outcomes across medical specialties?In this qualitative study of 40 US physicians practicing in 9 states with total abortion bans, participants reported delays in care and deviations from standard practice across a range of abortion-adjacent conditions, ambiguity and fear among physicians, loss of patient autonomy and shared decision-making, erosion of trust between patients and physicians, physicians being placed into a gatekeeping role, and increased health system burdens driven by legal risk rather than clinical need.These findings suggest that abortion bans have broad downstream consequences on medical care beyond abortion itself, shifting clinical decision-making away from patient-centered care and professional judgment toward legal risk mitigation, with implications for patient safety, equity, and physician ethics.

Corresponding Author: Sophia Landay, MD, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, 330 Brookline Ave, Boston, MA 02215 (slanday@bidmc.harvard.edu).

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