April 26, 2024

NEJM warns of increased intimate-partner violence after Dobbs and Bruen

The number of reasons to reject the reversal of Roe v. Wade continues to grow. In an opinion piece in the NEJM, perhaps the world’s leading medical journal, a Brown University legal academic argues that Dobbs will cause an increase in intimate partner violence.

In conjunction with another controversial SCOTUS ruling, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, more women will remain vulnerable to violence and their partners will have more access to guns, claims Elizabeth Tobin-Tyler,

“In light of these Court decisions, clinicians should prepare for the likelihood that more people of childbearing age will experience IPV and be at risk for firearm-associated homicide perpetrated by abusive partners. Legal restrictions on reproductive health care and access to abortion will leave people more vulnerable to control by their abusers. Policies permitting easier access to firearms, including the ability to carry guns in public, will further jeopardize survivors’ safety.”

This is just the latest in a series of suggestions forecasting Armageddon in an America without abortion:

What all these predictions have in common is lack of engagement with the other side of the debate. Yes, women may suffer in varying degrees, but their unborn child is also going to die. That needs to be acknowledged.