The overturning of the Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health decision in June 2022 has led to delays of care for countless women and pregnant people in states with trigger bans, and the immediate deaths of women in South Carolina and Texas. The aim of this team was to document the political and ethical situations of Southwide reproductive healthcare providers as they attempt to provide women and pregnant people with the nationwide medical standard of care in the aftermath of the Dobbs ruling.

In 2023-2024, team members documented the living history of abortion providers through a public-facing oral history audio archive and researched how medical education has and will be impacted by abortion restrictions. Through 45 interviews with 34 providers in 17 states and the District of Columbia, team members worked to develop a richer understanding of how barriers to reproductive healthcare accessibility and affordability affect people who can get pregnant and the clinicians who serve them.

This work plays a major role in documenting and sharing with the wider world how Dobbs is negatively affecting a multitude of populations due to the actions of lawmakers who lack medical expertise making policy that almost never directly affects them. The severe, negative impacts on people who can get pregnant, their families and the accessibility to all reproductive care (not just abortion care) in states that restrict abortion care access will resound for decades, as many providers leave those states, and medical students decide not to train in those states.

Timing

Summer 2023 – Spring 2024

Team Outputs

Project website

Reproductive Health Care Post-Roe (Interactive display presented at Fortin Foundation Bass Connections Showcase, April 17, 2024)

This Team in the News

Oral history project documents impact of abortion restrictions since the fall of Roe v. Wade

Things Your Civics Teacher Didn't Tell You: The Fight for Bodily Autonomy

Breaking Down Barriers: Reproductive Justice Amidst Systemic Challenges

Training in a Post-Roe Landscape

See related Story+ project, Healthy Women Post-Roe v. Wade (2023), and related team, Reproductive Health Care Post-Roe (2024-2025).