Research Shows Providers Experiencing Distress Post-Dobbs Decision
August 1, 2025 5 minutes read
By Melinda Young
Americans’ perceptions about abortion have changed since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right to abortion care, according to new research.1 After the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization to overturn abortion access, more people expressed support for abortion access, the study found.1
Researchers looked at Surveys of Women data from 2019 to 2023 in three states: New Jersey, Arizona, and Wisconsin. Arizona and Wisconsin had abortion restrictions immediately post-Dobbs. Abortion has remained accessible in New Jersey throughout the study’s time period.1 “These are state surveys of women of reproductive age,” says Alice Cartwright, PhD, MPH, a senior research scientist at the Guttmacher Institute in New York, NY.
“Today in Wisconsin and Arizona, abortion is available again,” she adds. “But [not] at the time we did the study; the data post-Dobbs was between November 2022 and June 2023, and for pretty much that entire time, abortion was not available.”
Having in-depth data for the pre-and-post-Dobbs time period made it a natural experiment to compare people’s attitudes before and after the Dobbs decision. “It’s terrible for people living in those states, but it gave us an opportunity to look at it [and compare],” Cartwright says.
It is difficult to find a change in health outcomes related to governmental policy, she notes. “This was a unique opportunity,” she says. “We looked at the perception of access, legality, attitude, and we hypothesized that because Dobbs was in the media that a lot of people had heard about it.”
Researchers looked at people’s answers to these five points:
- “Based on what you know or have heard, is it legal to get an abortion in your state?”1
- “Based on what you know or have heard, how easy or difficult is it to get/obtain an abortion in your state?1
- Based on what you know or have heard, how safe or dangerous do you think abortion is in your state?1
- “Which comes closest to your own view on abortion?”1
- Having an abortion is never acceptable;1
- Having an abortion may be acceptable depending on the circumstances;1 and
- Having an abortion is acceptable.1
- “Safe, effective, and affordable methods of abortion care should be available to people in their community.”1
“People in those two restrictive states correctly perceived that abortion was no longer legal or easy to get in their states post-Dobbs,” Cartwright says. “The people in restrictive states perceived abortion had become less safe post-Dobbs.”
The proportion of people who thought abortion was never acceptable decreased in all three states, and the number of people who thought abortion should be available increased in all three states, she adds.1
“People’s attitudes changed because of policies,” Cartwright says. “One of the things this underscores is that these restrictive state policies do not appear to be in line with the attitudes of women of reproductive age in those states, even in restrictive-policy states.”
Another new study found that clinicians are aware of poor pregnancy outcomes post-Dobbs. And media stories have given Americans a crash course in the dangers of pregnancy.2
“Doctors are in anguish: Do they go to jail in Texas and Alabama for life if they do what they were trained to do and what is best for their patients?” says Carole Joffe, PhD, a professor at the University of California San Francisco in Oakland, CA. Joffe is co-author of a new book, titled, After Dobbs: How the Supreme Court Ended Roe but Not Abortion, published in March 2025.
“It’s not hyperbolic to say women are dying — and women are dying — who absolutely should not be dying and who should have gotten routine care that should have saved their lives,” Joffe adds. “It’s not just the horror of women dying.”
Researchers conducted in-depth interviews with clinicians — both in states with abortion bans and those without bans — about how changes in pregnancy care because of the Dobbs decision affected them.2
Clinicians also described stress in handling patient care in states with abortion bans. One story involved a physician whose patient had premature prelabor rupture of membrane (PPROM), and the dispute was over whether the physician could even tell the patient where to obtain an abortion. Some of the doctor’s colleagues thought giving the patient that information would put them in legal jeopardy.2 “Everyone’s just terrified, so no one talks about [it],” the doctor told researchers.2
In another PPROM case, the doctor had permission from the hospital’s legal counsel to provide abortion care. But just before the procedure, a nurse panicked and told her supervisor and nurse manager. The nurse’s action delayed the abortion and frustrated the doctor, who said the patient had been dealing with the situation for 48 hours, and the physician did not want to prolong her suffering anymore. The patient ended up having a difficult delivery of a nonviable fetus and needed additional care that could have been avoided had the abortion taken place earlier.2
Clinicians spoke of their moral distress. One doctor reported being haunted by the wail of a patient who was told she could not have an abortion for the fetus that was missing parts of its brain and skull.2
Providers working in states that allowed abortion care also experienced consequences from Dobbs. Some reported how their patient volume increased — even doubling. They were struck by the desperation and fear in patients who had traveled from abortion-ban states. One patient had a miscarriage but was so afraid of being targeted by law enforcement that she did not ask her local doctor to make certain the miscarriage was complete. Instead, she went out of state to meet with an abortion provider. In a similar case, a woman refused to be checked by a local doctor and traveled far to an abortion clinic only to be told she had a 12-week ectopic pregnancy that could have ruptured during her out-of-state journey. The woman lost a fallopian tube and had to stay in a hotel for a week before safely returning home.2
“I think the media has done a good job of telling stories of how grievous it’s been with women dying,” Joffe explains. “The cumulative effect of this may lead to a change in status of the abortion provider.”
Melinda Young has been a healthcare and medical writer for 30 years. She currently writes about contraceptive technology.
References
1. Cartwright AF, Hussain R, Little AC, et al. Assessing the impact of Dobbs on abortion perceptions and attitudes in more restrictive versus less restrictive state policy environments: Evidence from Arizona, Wisconsin, and New Jersey. J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2025;34:855-867.
2. Joffe C, Kimport K. Caring for pregnancy-related emergencies after Dobbs. J Women’s Health (Larchmt). 2025;34(6):754-759.
Researchers conducted in-depth interviews with clinicians — both in states with abortion bans and those without bans — about how changes in pregnancy care because of the Dobbs decision affected them.
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