Which Harms to Patients Affect Family-Building Decision-Making in States in Which Legislatures Ban or Restrict...

AbstractAbortion bans and restrictions harm patients and are not evidence based. Bans express poor understanding of the clinical complexity of many patients' need for early intervention and need to avoid mortality or morbidity. Restrictions delay clinically indicated care and avoidable complications and contribute to poor physical and mental health outcomes; they also intrude in family decision-making and contribute to poor neonatal outcomes. This commentary on a case considers how bans and restrictions ignore patients' views about their and their family's quality of life and ignore patients' risk tolerance, including in response to threats to their survival. State-by-state legal variation poses logistical and financial barriers to clinically indicated services, causes delays, and exacerbates inequity.