THIS TIME ON CODE WACK!
How have health clinics that perform abortions been affected by the reversal of Roe vs. Wade one year ago? What kind of legal challenges have there been to individual states’ limitations on abortion since then?
To find out, we spoke with Cat Duffy, a policy analyst in the National Health Law Program’s Washington DC office. She holds a doctorate and works on reproductive and sexual healthcare access and services with a particular focus on abortion coverage and access. This is the second part of our recent interview on the state of abortion access in America.
SHOW NOTES
WE DISCUSS
What kind of impact has the reversal of Roe vs. Wade had on health clinics that perform abortions?
“A lot of clinics have closed or shifted to providing other sexual and reproductive health services, but even those centers still face attacks due to the stigma associated with being an abortion provider, even if they’re no longer actually providing abortions…” – Cat Duffy
How is it impacting clinicians?
“…providers are understandably scared to provide care in situations where the best course of action is to terminate a pregnancy. And so it’s causing them to delay [treatment] to ensure that they have a situation that firmly falls into the sort of life endangerment category.
“…this is going to have a long-term effect on the healthcare infrastructure, especially in states that have banned abortion, because doctors don’t want to work there anymore. A survey of current and future physicians was published earlier this year and 76% of the respondents said that they would not apply or to work or train in states that had abortion restrictions. … And in general, overall there was more than a 5% drop in the number of applications for OB GYN residencies.” – Cat Duffy
So would it be fair to say that the situation for people who are seeking abortion is markedly worse than it was before Roe was overturned?
“I think that there is a misconception that having a constitutional right to abortion meant that people can access abortion. And that is not true. Legality does not translate into actual access. It does not translate into having a provider nearby. It doesn’t translate into having insurance coverage that actually covers that service. … if you lived in a state that supported abortion access, access was maybe pretty okay for you depending on what part of the state you lived in, how much money you make, et cetera.
“But in many states, abortion was technically legal, but there was maybe one abortion provider in the entire state. And there are like bans on insurance coverage. For example, the Hyde Amendment, which is a federal budget rider that prohibits the use of federal funding for abortion coverage except for rape, incest, and life endangerment. That means for Medicaid enrollees, there’s an effective abortion ban for them. ” – Cat Duffy
Helpful Links
Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Ballotpedia
How post-Roe laws are obstructing clinical care, Ansihr, University of California San Francisco
Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA: Legal Standing and the Impact on Abortion Access, Center for American Progress
Some physicians, residents refuse to practice, train in states with abortion bans, Becker’s Healthcare
Justices Spar Over Judicial and Legislative Power in Iowa Abortion Ruling, Brennan Center for Justice
State and Federal Reproductive Rights and Abortion Litigation Tracker, Kaiser Family Foundation
What are the Comstock Laws?, Planned Parenthood
California SB 245, Health care coverage: abortion services: cost sharing.
Episode Transcript
Read the full episode transcript.
Biography: Cat Duffy, PhD
Cat Duffy, PhD, is a Policy Analyst in the National Health Law Program’s Washington, DC office. She works on reproductive and sexual health care access and services, with a particular focus on abortion coverage and access.
Before joining NHeLP, Cat was the Associate Director of Policy and Research at The Hub Project, where she managed the research supporting accountability campaigns on issues such as prescription drug prices, health care coverage, and abortion access. Previously, Cat was a State Policy Manager at Planned Parenthood Federation of America for several years, where she worked on several issues including abortion, telehealth, sex education, and gender-affirming health care access. In this role, she primarily focused on abortion policy, supporting the creation of advocacy strategies to protect and expand abortion access across the country.
Cat Duffy completed her PhD at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Her research agenda focused on health care policy, including issues related to the Affordable Care Act, contraceptive coverage, and Medicaid. Her dissertation was a content analysis of media coverage of the 2017 efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Cat was a COMPASS Fellow during her time at USC, where she spent a summer working at the Department of Health and Human Services. She also has a MA in Political Communication from Wake Forest University and a BA in International Relations from Michigan State University’s James Madison College.
Outside of the office, Cat loves to read (pretty much anything but there’s a special place in her heart for romance and fantasy) and is an avid fan of Survivor.
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