The life-threatening and life-altering consequences of abortion bans are not limited either to woman-identifying or to cis individuals. Overly simplistic binaries like male and female or man and woman leave out the 12 percent of U.S. transgender men and nonbinary individuals who experience pregnancy and the 21 percent of pregnant trans and nonbinary people who receive abortions—higher than the overall 18 percent of all pregnant people nationwide who receive abortions. Not only do rigid gender binaries ignore the unique barriers and obstacles faced by pregnant trans and nonbinary people, but they also ignore race-based inequities in maternal health outcomes wherein Black and Indigenous people have a maternal mortality rate up to 3 and 4.5 times the rate for white people, respectively.
Recent research from the National Institutes of Health also reveals that disabled people face 11 times the risk of death during pregnancy compared to their nondisabled counterparts. Research in the journal Social Science and Medicine finds that among pregnant immigrants, undocumented patients are among the least likely to receive prenatal care; consequently, a 2007 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that among Emergency Medicaid recipients—99 percent of whom are undocumented—childbirth and pregnancy complications accounted for 82 percent of all spending and 91 percent of all hospitalizations.
In the case of forced pregnancies due lack of access to a medical abortion, the resulting mortality will disproportionately affect trans, Black, Indigenous, disabled, and undocumented pregnant people. Research published in Duke University Press predicts that, under an abortion ban, overall maternal mortality is expected to increase by 21 percent and Black maternal mortality will skyrocket by 33 percent.
Given that low-income women are 3 times more likely than wealthier women to experience an unintended pregnancy, the deaths and other harms associated with forced pregnancy will fall along stark class-based lines.
Source: Reproduced from University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center, Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health. 2018. Socioeconomic outcomes of women who receive and women who are denied wanted abortions. Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH). Available at: https://www.ansirh.org/sites/default/files/publications/files/turnaway_socioeconomic_outcomes_issue_brief_8-20-2018.pdf
A landmark 2018 study conducted by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco finds that over half of all U.S. abortion-seekers live below the federal poverty level and over three-quarters do not have enough money to cover their own basic living expenses. The most common reason given for wanting to terminate an unwanted pregnancy is not having enough money to care for a child or support another one. People who are denied abortions are more likely than those who receive an abortion to become enrolled in public safety net programs like TANF, SNAP, and WIC, and are 3 times more likely to be unemployed six months later. People denied abortions are more likely to raise children as a single parent compared to those who receive abortions and are also more likely to be unable to afford their own basic needs.
The UCSF study results also suggest that forced childbirths impose significant financial duress on pregnant people, particularly for low- and moderate-income people and those in precarious economic situations; follow-up research by the National Bureau of Economic Research confirms that being denied an abortion creates significant and persistent financial burdens. It is disproportionately low-income people who will suffer the most—not just physically, but also economically—under an abortion ban.
The data are clear: The struggle for reproductive rights goes beyond a struggle for women’s rights. Reproductive justice is justice for transgender and nonbinary people, Black people, for Indigenous people, for disabled people, for undocumented people, for poor people, and for all people engaged in the struggle for bodily autonomy.
