A Reflection on the Limitation of Reproductive Health Rights in 2022

Perhaps the most impactful news in health care—let alone national politics—this year was the Supreme Court’s vote to overrule Roe v. Wade, thereby altering abortion care protections to a state-level decision and causing disarray and concern to most patients and caregivers in maternal-fetal medicine and OB/GYN.

In the latest installment of the This Year In Medicine 2022 series, David Hackney, MD, MS, professor of maternal-fetal medicine at Case Western Reserve University and chair of the ACOG Ohio Chapter, discusses a litany of state-level impacts in his hoe of Ohio, and the status of reproductive health rights as we head into 2023.

The full video interview is available above; here is an except from Hackney’s discussion:

“It's going to be a long haul. It's going to be the long game, but I do believe that abortion rights will be reinstated. The constitutional amendments and ballot measures have passed in every single state, including states like Kentucky and Kansas, and other states which are similar to Ohio with regards to being purple-ish states. I will just refuse to believe that a law as terrible as SB 23, which causes the suffering that [it] causes, [and] that is opposed by such a large percentage of people in Ohio, would be able to remain on the books forever.

Of course, if the injunction is lifted—if it does go back into effect—I want that period to be as short as humanly possible. You always are playing the long game. I do believe that abortion rights will be restored at some future point. We are certainly here for the long game to fight the fight in the state as well.”