Book Description

In June 2022, the United States (U.S.) Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade (1973) with the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case, thereby eliminating the constitutional right to abortion. As a result, authority now resides with individual states to regulate abortion access. Currently, abortion is banned in several states, severely restricted in some, and protected in others. While the impact of the Dobbs decision has yet to be fully realized, it has severe implications for sexual and reproductive health, rights and justice, population health, and health equity nationally and globally. The impact of the ruling is expected to exacerbate existing health disparities and produce new inequities in sexual, reproductive, and maternal health outcomes, disproportionately affecting pregnant people who are already minoritized or disenfranchised (e.g., people of color, people with low incomes, young people, people living in rural areas, immigrants, people who identify as LGBTQIA+, justice-involved, and unhoused communities) living in states where abortion access has been banned or restricted. This Research Topic aims to elucidate actual short-term, potential long-term, global, and domestic health inequities produced by the Dobbs decision, and to describe efforts and interventions designed and undertaken to reduce health impacts and inequities in advance or directly after the decision. Recent data from countries that have restricted access to abortion over the past 30 years reveal that such laws actually increase rates of unsafe abortion, which in many instances leads to pregnant people becoming severely ill or dying from preventable causes. In an era of maternal health crisis for people of color in the U.S. and other disadvantaged populations around the world, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion in the U.S. will have a reactionary impact on underserved and minoritized groups everywhere. The implications will be felt globally as the Dobbs decision has triggered the development of restrictive policies increasing inequalities by social and demographic characteristics. Many groups disproportionately experience social disadvantage, yielding socially distributed negative exposures including severely limited access to care. The goal of the article collection is to identify threats to, results of, and protections against inequities in reproductive health, rights, and justice. Devoting a Special Issue to this topic brings vital and robust discourse about reproductive justice and health inequity to the forefront of public health.