Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a landmark ruling on abortion rights, Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide in 1973. While the original Roe v. Wade case was a pivotal moment in widening women's rights to abortion care, that original ruling also led to a significant backlash — meaning attempts to restrict abortion access – that took place for many years long before last year's overturning of Roe.
As reported by the The Guttmacher Institute, specifically the years between 2011 and 2017 ushered in an unprecedented wave of new abortion restrictions in the United States; 32 states enacted a total of 394 new restrictions. Sadly, according to a new study published in JAMA Psychiatry, a likely repercussion of these accumulating restrictions was an increase in death by suicide. The study suggests a connection between an increased rate of suicide and more abortion restrictions in a given jurisdiction.
