After Dobbs, miscarriage care looked different in states with abortion bans

After Dobbs, miscarriage care looked different in states with abortion bans Skip to content Subscribe today Every print subscription comes with full digital access Subscribe Now By Aimee Cunningham May 18, 2026 at 11:00 am Share this: Share Share via email (Opens in new window) Email Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook Share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit Share on X (Opens in new window) X Print (Opens in new window) Print Abortion restrictions are affecting the care people receive for miscarriages, a new study suggests. The same medications and procedures that induce abortion are used to treat miscarriage. The Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization , which ended constitutional protection for abortion , triggered bans in 14 states. Compared with states without abortion bans, states with bans were associated with a reduction in medication management for a miscarriage, researchers report May 18 in the Journal of the American Medical Association . In cases where medication management was pursued, states with bans were linked to less use of the most effective protocol . “Miscarriage is the most common complication of pregnancy, and the finding from this analysis demonstrate how vulnerable the patients are to breaks in the system,” says obstetrician and gynecologist Courtney Schreiber at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, who was not involved in the new research. People suffering pregnancy loss are “experiencing additional psychological and physical harm as a result of policies that restrict access to abortion care, even though those restrictions should not apply to this population.” Around 15 to 20 percent of known pregnancies end in miscarriage , often due to genetic abnormalities or without an apparent cause. Early pregnancy loss affects approximately 1 million women in the United States each year. Miscarriage puts a person at risk of complications, including inf