Confusion, Cruelty and Fear: Delivering Reproductive Care to Women After Texas’ Abortion Ban

The overturning of Roe v. Wade and resulting actions to ban abortion in states across the country altered the landscape for both women seeking reproductive health care services and the clinicians that provide those services. In Texas, far reaching restrictions on abortion have been in place since the passage of SB8, followed by a near total ban after the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

Recent work by , sponsored by nine independent and non-profit foundations in Texas, highlighted the impact of the state's abortion bans on the state’s OB/GYN workforce and the implications for access to reproductive health care.

This new work builds on that study. Manatt is interviewing physicians across the state, including OB/GYNs, emergency medicine (EM) physicians, and family medicine (FM) physicians trained in obstetrics and documenting their stories caring for pregnant women and common themes emerging across multiple physicians. 

This report includes the results of physician interviews, highlighting major themes on how the practice experience has changed after the state’s abortion ban and how physicians are managing the practice of medicine and engaging with women seeking reproductive health care services.