A new analysis co-authored by Columbia Data Analytics found that state abortion bans enacted after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision were associated with increased mental health risks for low-income mothers, while women in more affluent communities appeared to be largely unaffected.
The study, published in JAMA Network Open, analyzed more than 160,000 pregnancies among Medicaid enrollees between 2019 and 2024. Outcomes for women and adolescents in 14 states with post-Dobbs “trigger” abortion bans were compared to those in 36 states where abortion access remained legal.
Using longitudinal Medicaid claims data from Kythera Labs, we examined new diagnoses of postpartum depression (PPD) in the year following delivery. Patients were categorized into low, middle, and high socioeconomic status (SES) groups based on characteristics of their residential ZIP codes.
Among residents of the lowest-income communities, Medicaid patients in states with abortion bans experienced a 9% relative increase in PPD diagnoses after Dobbs, vs similar patients in states without abortion restrictions.
Findings suggest that the mental health consequences of abortion restrictions are concentrated among populations with the fewest economic and healthcare resources. States with trigger abortion bans also tended to have fewer behavioral health providers, lower levels of federal mental health funding per capita and lower rates of Medicaid expansion; these factors may have amplified the impact of abortion restrictions on maternal mental health.
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