ArticleSSM - population health2023
The association between reproductive rights and access to abortion services and mental health among US women.
Article in SSM - population health, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- US State Policy Contexts and Mental Health Among Working-Age Adults.The Milbank quarterly · 2026Article
- Restrictive abortion policy climate is associated with increased depression symptoms among women in the United States: Findings from a 25-year longitudinal study.SSM. Mental health · 2026Article
- Associations between state-level abortion restrictions and postpartum depression symptoms from a United States nationwide cohort.Lancet regional health. Americas · 2026Article
- Mental health and beliefs about abortion access following changes to reproductive healthcare laws in 2022: findings from Oklahoma.BMC public health · 2025Article
- LGBTQ+ policies in the United States and mental health: The mediating role of sexual orientation discrimination among sexual minority women and gender diverse individuals assigned female at birth.Sexuality research & social policy : journal of NSRC : SR & SP · 2025Article
- Trends and risk factors for physical and psychological sequelae of induced abortion: a cross-sectional study of contemporary women in the Republic of Korea.Osong public health and research perspectives · 2025Article
- Report: Workshop on maternal mental health, February 11-12, 2024, cosponsored by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.Pregnancy (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2025Article
- Contraceptive Barriers and Psychological Well-Being After Repeat Induced Abortion: A Systematic Review.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Suicide deaths among reproductive-aged women in the US post-Dobbs: a national time-series analysis.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2025Article
- Desire for Sterilization Reversal in Delaware, US: The Roles of LARC Use, Personal Abortion Acceptability, and Economic Disadvantage.Perspectives on sexual and reproductive health · 2025Article
- Women's reproductive mental health: currently available evidence and future directions for research, clinical practice and health policy.World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) · 2025Article
- Association Between State Abortion Restrictiveness and Perinatal Depression.Journal of women's health (2002) · 2025Article
- Accuracy and Misleadingness of Anatomical and Embryological Statements in State-Level Abortion Ban Legislation in the United States.Perspectives on sexual and reproductive health · 2025Article
- Experience of Contraceptive Denial, Perceived Ease of Future Access to Contraception, and Adverse Mental Health Outcomes in Polish Women.International journal of women's health · 2025Article
- Expanding the women's health paradigm beyond reproductive boundaries.The Indian journal of medical research · 2025Article
- Changes in Reproductive Health Information-Seeking Behaviors After the Dobbs Decision: Systematic Search of the Wikimedia Database.JMIR infodemiology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: This study examines whether living in US states with (1) restrictive reproductive rights and (2) restrictive abortion laws is associated with frequent mental health distress among women. Methods: We operationalize reproductive rights using an overall state-level measure of reproductive rights as well as a state-level measure of restrictive abortion laws. We merged data from the 2018 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) with these state-level exposure variables and other state-level information. We used multilevel logistic regression to assess the relationship between these two measures and the likelihood of reporting 14 or more days of frequent mental health distress. We also tested whether associations differed across race, household income, education, and marital status. Results: In the adjusted models, a standard deviation-unit increase in the reproductive rights score was significantly associated with decreased odds of reporting frequent mental health distress (OR = 0.95, 95% CI = 0.91, 0.99). Women in states with very hostile abortion restrictions had higher odds of frequent mental health distress. Associations between state-level abortion restrictions were larger among women 25-34 years old and women with a high school degree. For example, women aged 25-34 years residing in moderate (OR = 1.54, 95% CI = 1.14, 2.04), hostile (OR = 1.59, 95% CI = 1.15, 2.18), and very hostile (OR = 1.29, 95% CI = 1.02, 1.64) states were more likely to report frequent mental health distress than women living in states with less restrictive abortion policies. Conclusion: We found the association between state-level restrictions on reproductive rights and abortion access and frequent mental health distress differed by age and socioeconomic status. These results suggest abortion rights restrictions may contribute to mental health inequities among women.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.