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New Study Shows Abortion Restrictions May Have Increased Suicide Rates Among Younger Women

<p>Abortion restrictions and limited access to reproductive healthcare services may be the cause of increased suicide rates among younger women&period; According to <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;people&period;com&sol;health&sol;abortion-restrictions-may-have-increased-suicide-rates-among-women-new-study-finds&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">PEOPLE<&sol;a>&comma; a new study&comma; published Wednesday&comma; by <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;jamanetwork&period;com&sol;journals&sol;jamapsychiatry&sol;fullarticle&sol;2799597&quest;guestAccessKey&equals;9ac07a88-f8d6-40c4-b074-8b1a0311faf0&amp&semi;utm&lowbar;source&equals;For&lowbar;The&lowbar;Media&amp&semi;utm&lowbar;medium&equals;referral&amp&semi;utm&lowbar;campaign&equals;ftm&lowbar;links&amp&semi;utm&lowbar;content&equals;tfl&amp&semi;utm&lowbar;term&equals;122822" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener" data-component&equals;"link" data-source&equals;"inlineLink" data-type&equals;"externalLink" data-ordinal&equals;"1">JAMA Psychiatry<&sol;a> revealed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-twitter data-tweetid&equals;"1610318102037774338" layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"480"><&sol;amp-twitter><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">Increased Suicide Rates&comma; Stress&comma; And Anxiety<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>According to <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;people&period;com&sol;health&sol;abortion-restrictions-may-have-increased-suicide-rates-among-women-new-study-finds&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">PEOPLE<&sol;a>&comma; the study analyzed 21 states that have enforced &&num;8220&semi;at least one Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers &lpar;TRAP&rpar; law&&num;8221&semi; between the years 1974 and 2016&period; In total&comma; the study found more than 1&comma;300 abortion restriction efforts&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Between those years&comma; the &&num;8220&semi;average annual suicide rate among women of reproductive age&&num;8221&semi; rose nearly 6&percnt; higher than it had been in years prior to trap enforcement&period; In addition&comma; the restriction of abortion services led to increased levels of stress and anxiety among women&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>Stress is associated with increased mental health burden&comma; and in turn&comma; is associated with increased suicide risk&period;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">Findings Show That Younger Women Are More Effected Than Older Women<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>According to Dr&period; Ran Barzilay&comma; one of the study&&num;8217&semi;s authors&comma; it is the &&num;8220&semi;first of its kind&&num;8221&semi; to show the link between abortion restrictions and suicide rates among younger women&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Researchers were unable to determine that abortion restrictions had the same effect on older women&period; And noted that the impact was seen specifically on younger women impacted by the TRAP laws of 1974-2016&period; According to <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;nbcnews&period;com&sol;health&sol;health-news&sol;abortion-restrictions-may-increased-suicide-risk-younger-women-rcna63358" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">NBC News<&sol;a>&comma; researchers ruled out other factors such as the economy or the political climate as catalysts for the increased suicide rate&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">&&num;8220&semi;The Need For Support And For Mental Health Care&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>An additional editorial was published by Tyler VanderWeele&comma; an epidemiology professor at the Harvard T&period;H&period; Chan School of Public Health&period; It shared that TRAP laws may have also been the cause of 127 suicides among women in 2016&period; The increased rate of suicide among women is &&num;8220&semi;cause for clinical concern&comma;&&num;8221&semi; he added&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to VanderWeele&comma; the data indicates a &&num;8220&semi;need for support&&num;8221&semi; and &&num;8220&semi;mental health care&period;&&num;8221&semi; Both of which&comma; he believes&comma; go beyond what&&num;8217&semi;s currently being offered in the country&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-twitter data-tweetid&equals;"1608164488196329472" layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"480"><&sol;amp-twitter><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">TRAP Laws And Travel Time For Abortions<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>According to Nichole Austin&comma; an assistant epidemiology professor at Dalhousie University&comma; TRAP laws can be &&num;8220&semi;a little bit ridiculous&period;&&num;8221&semi; The laws can stipulate everything from the size of a procedure room to the width of corridors in an abortion facility&comma; to the temperature in the building&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As reported by <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;nbcnews&period;com&sol;health&sol;health-news&sol;abortion-restrictions-may-increased-suicide-risk-younger-women-rcna63358" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">NBC News<&sol;a>&comma; TRAP laws can extend travel time to abortion facilities&period; And even cause some to close down permanently&period; Both options cause severe inconveniences for women&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>Instead of being able to go 5 miles down the road to an abortion provider&comma; maybe your state passed some TRAP law&comma; and your nearest provider closed&period; So then&comma; as a consequence&comma; you’re finding yourself traveling 50 miles&period;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>Another study published by <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;jamanetwork&period;com&sol;journals&sol;jama&sol;article-abstract&sol;2798215" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">JAMA Psychiatry<&sol;a> further exemplified the link between travel time for abortion access and stress levels among young women&period; It determine that the average travel time to abortion facilities increased from 30 minutes in 2021 to 100 minutes in September&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The percentage of women who also lived more than an hour away from an abortion facility also rose from 15&percnt; to 33&percnt; percent during that period&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-twitter data-tweetid&equals;"1610365510582935553" layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"480"><&sol;amp-twitter><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"">Although Barzilay believes there is more research to be done on the topic&comma; he did share a brief statement on the stress caused by the decrease in abortion access&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"">What causes a person in need of an abortion to be stressed&quest; It’s the loss of this option to do it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine; <div class&equals;"wpra-reactions-wrap wpra-plugin-container" style&equals;"justify-content&colon; center&semi;&semi;"> <div class&equals;"wpra-reactions-container" data-ver&equals;"1&period;3&period;10" data-post&lowbar;id&equals;"107098" data-show&lowbar;count&equals;"true" data-enable&lowbar;share&equals;"onclick" data-behavior&equals;"regular" data-animation&equals;"true" data-share&lowbar;url&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;dev&period;theshaderoom&period;com&sol;new-study-shows-restrictions-may-have-increased-rates-among-younger-women&sol;" data-secure&equals;"2a1d850594"> <div class&equals;"wpra-call-to-action" style&equals;"color&colon; &num;000000&semi;font-size&colon; 25px&semi;font-weight&colon; 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Jadriena Solomon

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