A new report from Youth Reproduction Equity, a national collaboration of researchers and clinicians, outlines a research agenda to examine the impact of the Dobbs decision on minors.
The lead author of the report, “Post-Adolescence: A Policy-Driven Research Agenda on Adolescents and Abortion,” is Julie Maslow, an associate professor at the University of Michigan's School of Nursing and affiliated with the National Center for Population Research. Mr. Ski. Institute for Social Research. She explains the details of the report.
As far as you know, what happened to adolescents' access to abortion and reproductive health care after the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision two years ago overturned Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right to abortion?
Before Dobbs, minors already faced more legal and logistical barriers to accessing abortion than adults. Now, those barriers are even higher. More than half of American adolescents now live in states with severely limited or no access to abortion. We do not yet fully understand how these restrictions will impact young people seeking abortions or those who are entering adulthood during this chaotic time. But in states with strict regulations, even the very young rape victims are unable to access abortions, the number of young people seeking permanent sterilization has skyrocketed, and states with abortion bans have higher sterilization rates. I know that it is. The effects are already dire.
Why are minors underrepresented in abortion and reproductive health research studies? Will this report address that?
The field of abortion research does not have a strong tradition of including minors in research. We identify six persistent and overarching concerns related to infrastructure, surveillance, and workforce composition and capacity that systematically impede the field's ability to produce actionable research evidence related to minors and abortion. Identify specific issues. We offer recommendations to address these challenges. Researcher training. Diversify research personnel. Encourage interdisciplinary expertise. Remove obstacles to approving research proposals involving minors. Prioritize funding. We disseminate and translate research.
What impact does the exclusion of minors have on policy and reproductive health?
Minors are disproportionately affected by new abortion regulations and are often targeted by restrictive state abortion policies or ignored by protective policies. Access to abortion for minors is regulated by all laws affecting adults, as well as by a number of laws specific to minors, which are discussed in the report. Even if minors are able to overcome legal obstacles, they face greater barriers than adults in terms of cost, information, and access. Minors are in a legally vulnerable position. In political negotiations, the rights of minors are often restricted as a compromise to secure votes for abortion policies that also apply to adults. Restricting the rights of minors sets a dangerous precedent for other marginalized groups.
What are the areas most ignored or misunderstood by science in adolescent reproductive health care policy and research?
Minors are systematically underrepresented in all areas of abortion research. We need to include them in all kinds of abortion-related research.
Are there any areas of minors, abortion, and reproductive health care policy that are more ignored or misunderstood by the public than others?
One common misconception is that policies requiring parental involvement in abortion decisions for minors are protective. In fact, research shows that these policies harm young people for whom parental involvement is impossible or unsafe. Several studies have documented evidence of delays in care following the introduction of parental involvement requirements, particularly for people traveling from out of state for care.
Delays are even more pronounced among those who are unable to engage their parents and instead seek judicial avoidance. For example, a study of minors seeking judicial avoidance in Massachusetts and Illinois found that they received abortion care 5 to 6 days later than those who met parental consent and notification requirements, and in some cases received medication. The 10-week limit for abortions has now been exceeded, underscoring how options are being limited. For care. Judicial avoidance has also been shown to cause psychological harm and trauma to young people seeking abortions, and does not consistently serve as a genuine alternative to parental involvement in some situations where requests for judicial avoidance are denied. There is.
What are the most compelling facts researchers know about minors and abortion that the public should know?
Restrictions on abortion do not only affect minors who become pregnant or those seeking abortion care. Restricted access to reproductive health care affects all minors in the United States. The experience of adolescence itself has fundamentally changed. Adolescence changes the way we think about many aspects of life, including relationships, where we live and go to college, how we vote, and what our future holds. For example, several studies have recently shown that the number of young people choosing to undergo permanent sterilization has increased nationwide. These increases are larger in states that ban abortion.
Who will use this report and why would they want to use it?
The target audience for the report is researchers, research funders, and individuals.
An organization that helps translate research evidence into policy. The report's recommendations will help shape research and funding portfolios and make research questions more applicable to policy. This report examines why minors matter in the abortion debate, how they are driving the abortion debate, and how current state policies affect (protect or protect) minors' access to abortion. It deals comprehensively with this issue, from how it affects specific research questions (such as limitations) to specific research questions. We focused on data to drive policy and recommendations to build local (and national) capacity to produce evidence-based policies for minors.
Co-authors include Laura Lindberg of Rutgers University and Emily Mann of the University of South Carolina.
