MCH and Abortion: Towards a Stronger Relationship

The history of abortion rights in the US is long and contentious. Women have always had abortions, legal or not, and the legalization fight in recent history has been led by feminists. This paper tracks the course of that history through the Progressive Era of the first wave feminists, second wave feminism from the 1960s to the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, the reactive period of trying to minimize the harm of abortion restrictions, and the consequences of the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision overthrowing Roe v. Wade. For each time period we ask who was leading the fight, how they framed their advocacy, who were their opponents and what arguments they used, and the extent to which maternal and child health (MCH) professionals and institutions engaged in the struggle. We offer recommendations for MCH practice going forward to (1) embrace women's health and health care as inseparable from infant, child, and family health, and abortion as central to women's physical and mental health; (2) build partnerships and coalitions among entities identified with MCH and those advocating reproductive rights, particularly abortion; (3) become voices for abortion as an essential part of MCH and public health; and (4) framing abortion as an equity issue. Women's judgment about the timing of their own childbearing and women's ability to act on that judgment improves maternal and child survival and wellbeing.