Two dates following the Women’s Health decision in Dobbs v. Jackson paint a picture of the impact of that decision on mental health.

First: Early data shows that states that enacted abortion bans after Roe v. Wade was overturned had higher rates of self-reported mental health concerns, especially among the less affluent.

Second: Legislators in those states are increasingly reluctant to include mental health problems or psychological conditions in the list of reasons to justify a legal emergency abortion.

According to research by Brad Greenwood, professor of information systems and operations management at George Mason University’s Costello College of Business, which was published in Science Advances in July, much of the psychological impact of state bans was related to social status -economic. with the self-reported mental health of less educated and less affluent subjects “demonstrably worse” than the average.

“If you’re making more than six figures, there’s no effect,” Greenwood said, adding that there were no “significant differences” based on sex assigned at birth, race, age, marital status and sexual orientation.

His study speculates that some of this may be because wealthier subjects can more easily travel out of state to receive the procedure.

The increase comes as lawmakers have made it increasingly clear that so-called “emergency exceptions” that allow legal abortions can include physical conditions but not psychological or other mental health problems.

Since January, lawmakers have introduced at least three bills with language that would exclude mental health as a medical emergency that could require abortion care.

Among those bills were two that would require informed consent for patients about risks and other details before receiving an abortion.

These bills would provide exceptions in cases to save the life of a pregnant person and to prevent “substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function, not including the psychological or emotional conditions, of the pregnant woman.”

Another House bill would ban certain abortion measures under the United States code. It includes nine separate examples of this phrase: “a pregnant woman whose life is endangered by a physical disorder, physical disease or physical injury, including a life-threatening physical condition caused by or arising from pregnancy in itself, but without including psychological problems or emotional conditions.”

Since CQ Roll Call’s initial legislative review of state abortion laws began in December, lawmakers in 10 states — New Jersey, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Idaho, Kentucky, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Florida – introduced 17 bills that specifically exclude mental health emergencies from the language, allowing exceptions for emergency situations.

Of the 10 states, only Tennessee has enacted its legislation. The state is in the middle of litigation over a separate law banning most abortions that exclude mental health emergencies.