Practicing medicine with ones hands tied: How abortion bans impact the practice of healthcare in Tennessee

Tennessee is one of thirteen US states which have implemented abortion bans after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs vs. Jackson decision. There is thus a significant need to understand how these bans are impacting the practice of medicine. This project explores how these bans are impacting patient outcomes, health equity, and medical decision-making. Through focusing on understanding the effects of these bans, this study seeks to educate a general public as well as medical educators, policy experts, and law makers on the unintended effects of such laws on public health and reproductive health. Tennessee is already a state with significant inequalities around race and maternal/child health outcomes.

A number of preliminary interviewees have commented on their belief that the policy will lead to women dying unnecessarily. There is a tension now in medical practice between fearing negative health outcomes for women needing abortions and fear of legal sanction for violating the law.  The threat of litigation impacts much of reproductive healthcare. As one physician stated in an interview, “it really undermines your relationship with your patient when you tell them that they have a life-threatening condition that needs to be taken care of surgically, but also this ectopic pregnancy that would never be a human being cannot be removed until it no longer has a heartbeat.”

Part of this research will involve comparing the effects of the Tennessee abortion ban to the literature and policy advocacy around abortion bans in other countries. This comparative research will be important in providing insights into how medical providers and health advocates can navigate restrictive legal landscapes in ways that best serve patients and ameliorate negative effects, particularly around health equity.

I plan to complete a book on this research and at least one article to be published in Medical Anthropology Quarterly.