published today<\/a> in JAMA Health Forum, found that states with targeted regulations of abortion providers, also known as TRAP laws, have worse maternal health outcomes for patients using fertility treatment compared with states that don\u2019t have such laws.<\/p>\nPatients with infertility diagnoses already carry an increased risk of health complications during pregnancy and childbirth, including hemorrhage, gestational diabetes, growth restriction, hysterectomy, preterm birth and stillbirth. The OHSU study aimed to better understand how a lack of access to full-scope reproductive health care in many states creates additional risk for these patients.<\/p>\n
![\"Molly](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Molly+Kornfield_s.jpg\" "\\"Molly")
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Molly Kornfield, M.D. (OHSU)<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople with highly planned and desired pregnancies may not be who we typically think of when we discuss the impacts of abortion restrictions, but their health and safety are being considerably impacted,\u201d said Molly Kornfield, M.D., assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology in the OHSU School of Medicine and the study\u2019s lead author. \u201cThese data prove what we already know: Abortion restrictions don\u2019t exist in a vacuum \u2014 they affect everyone who needs reproductive healthcare.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the retrospective, population-based cohort study, researchers analyzed neonatal and maternal health statistics for over 400,000 births conceived through fertility treatments between 2012 and 2021. The results showed a statistically significant increase in serious maternal health complications, including blood transfusion, ICU admission, unplanned hysterectomy and uterine rupture \u2014 which can be life-threatening and have the potential to compromise future fertility.<\/p>\n
While more research is needed to understand the root causes of these impacts, researchers hypothesize several factors are at play, including widespread fertility clinic closures, an exodus of abortion providers from restrictive states, as well as an ongoing national shortage of OB\/GYNs.<\/p>\n
The research team says that the impacts of TRAP laws have changed the way they counsel patients and deliver care. For example, they may advise patients to approach travel with more caution during pregnancy, since they won\u2019t receive the same standard of care in all states. This is especially true for individuals who already face barriers and discrimination within the health care system, including people of color, immigrants and LGBTQ+ people.<\/p>\n
![\"Samuel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Sam+Melville_s.jpg\" "\\"Samuel")
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Samuel Melville, M.D. (OHSU)<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re lucky to be living and practicing in Oregon, where we\u2019re able to offer evidence-based, full-scope reproductive health care, but sadly this isn\u2019t the case in so many areas,\u201d said Samuel Melville, M.D., resident physician in OHSU\u2019s department of obstetrics and gynecology and the study\u2019s co-author. \u201cIf we want to truly support the health of children and families, we need to acknowledge that safe reproduction includes abortion care.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A research team including fertility experts from OHSU\u2019s Center for Women\u2019s Health investigated the health impacts of abortion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[15098,49,48,2773,84,14164,994],"class_list":["post-398864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-abortion","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fertility","tag-health","tag-oregon-health-amp-science-university-ohsu","tag-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Left](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Fertility+study_main_f2fb605a-276c-4bf4-a1eb-89ef9017debd-prv.jpg\" "\\"A")
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