On an array of health concerns, policymakers have rejected science in favor of lawmaking based on ideology, politics, and religion, to the detriment of public health. This is particularly true of stigmatized health areas such as reproductive health, and especially abortion care.
Prior to the Supreme Court Decision of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, state lawmakers who were determined to legally restrict abortion enacted laws with the purpose of impeding abortion care. As legislators bound by constitutional protections for the right to abortion, they could not ban abortion outright. Anti-abortion lawmakers instead enacted laws that reject scientific evidence to discourage and create obstacles for both abortion providers and patients seeking abortion. Among the many types of antiscientific abortion regulation are medication abortion “reversal” laws.
In this commentary in the American Journal of Public Health, CPHLR Fellow Patty Skuster calls for thorough research and surveillance of antiscience abortion regulation to inform evidence-based policymaking around reproductive health.