Advocacy and Activism for Health Care Providers in a Post-Roe World

Abstract

Although the work of health care providers in delivering care for their patients and communities has always been impacted by legislative changes, reproductive health care services, especially abortion care, has received more scrutiny, undergone disparate and excessive attempts at overregulation, and has been subject to more restrictions than most fields of medicine. The June 2022 Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, essentially overturning the federal constitutional protections of the legal right to access abortion afforded by the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, has brought this issue to the forefront for many clinicians across sectors and disciplines. As trusted voices, physicians and other health care providers are uniquely positioned to discuss the implications of policies that restrict access to comprehensive reproductive health care, including abortion services, as they bear witness to the challenges this creates for them in practice and the communities they care for. This article discusses the impact of the Dobbs ruling on medical providers and their patients as well as the responsibility of health care providers to advocate for abortion access.