ANTI-ABORTION AFTERSHOCKS

Last year's dramatic change to abortion law has further-reaching implications than you may think. In addition to revoking a health care right, the Supreme Court decision opened the door to new dangers for women and families.

- MERYL DAVIDS LANDAU

Being able to choose what's best for your own body and health-specifically when it comes to abortion-is important to the majority of the country and was a protected Constitutional right until last year. But with the overturning of Roe v. Wade last summer, 12 states have banned nearly all abortions outright, with another 18 prohibiting them at points when they would have been allowed under Roe. These laws' effects aren't limited to the inconvenience of having to travel to get an abortionan option countless Black women, teens, low-income people, sandwich-generation moms, and people with disabilities don't even have.

In fact, the consequences of the Dobbs ruling, which overturned Roe, are already threatening women's lives and causing trauma, and experts say the future may hold other dangers for families. The hostility of many (mostly male) state legislators toward reproductive health also means that access to contraception and possibly reproductive technology is on the chopping block. "These state laws have far-reaching effects. This impacts all of us," says Amber Gavin, vice president of advocacy and operations at A Woman's Choice, which runs three abortion clinics in North Carolina and one in Florida.

Nearly one in four women will need an abortion at some point. But even if neither you nor a close friend or relative is among them, or you wouldn't choose an abortion for yourself, it's important to know how the decision has affected the physical, emotional, and economic health of many Americans. Here are the multiple ways in which this new reproductive landscape puts us all at risk.

PREGNANCY IS NOW FAR MORE DANGEROUS