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Poster Session 3

Category: Epidemiology

Poster Session 3

(962) The impact of 6-week abortion bans on maternal mental health in Texas

Thursday, February 12, 2026

10:30 AM - 12:00 PM

Submitting Author and Presenting Author(s)

Shilpi S. Mehta-Lee, MD (she/her/hers)

Associate Professor
Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, NYU Grossman School of Medicine
New York, New York, United States

Coauthor(s)

BS

Benjamin Stockton, PhD

Department of Population Health, NYU Grossman School of Medicine
New York, New York, United States
AB

Ayushi Bommireddipalli, MPH

Research Associate
Department of Pediatrics, NYU Grossman School of Medicine
New York, New York, United States
MC

Mia Charifson, PhD

Graduate Research Assistant
Department of Population Health, New York University Grossman School of Medicine
New York, New York, United States
AA

Aurora Aurora Scotti, MSc

Department of Population Health, NYU Grossman School of Medicine
New York, New York, United States
AF

Andrew Fair

Department of Population Health, NYU Grossman School of Medicine
New York, New York, United States
CH

Chuan Hong, PhD

Department of Population Health, NYU Grossman School of Medicine
New York, New York, United States
LK

Linda G. Kahn, MPH, PhD

Assistant Professor
Department of Population Health, NYU Grossman School of Medicine
New York, New York, United States
EH

Erinn M. Hade, PhD

Division of Biostatistics, Department of Population Health, NYU Grossman School of Medicine
New York, New York, United States

Objective:
Evidence indicates recent abortion bans have led to higher maternal morbidity. Understanding their effect on psychiatric health is crucial. In September 2021, Texas (TX) Senate Bills 4 and 8 (SB4/8), curtailed access to abortion beyond 6-weeks of gestation. Electronic health records (EHR) provide invaluable data for assessing the consequences of such policies.

Study Design:
We used Epic Cosmos EHR data to investigate maternal mental health outcomes for pregnancies that began between January 1, 2017, and June 30, 2023, across participating institutions in TX. Those with pregnancies that started before July 1, 2021, were unexposed to SB4/8. There were 600,536 pregnancies prior to SB4/8 (2017-2021) and 328,886 following the ban (2021-2023). We assessed rates of depression diagnoses during pregnancy and 60 days postpartum (O99.34, F53, O90.6, F43) through interrupted time series methods based on Bayesian Poisson autoregressive models. Models estimated the cumulative excess diagnoses incidence (95% CI) observed during the ban period compared with the predicted counterfactual diagnosis counts had no ban been implemented, adjusted for demographics and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic through model averaging.

Results:
During the 4.5 years prior to SB4/8, depression rates increased from 18.8 to 32.2 diagnoses per 1000 pregnancies. After the ban rates continued to increase from 32.2 to 39.6 per 1000 pregnancies. There was no evidence of an overall significant increase nor decrease in excess incidence after the ban (-117.6 cases, 95% CI: -1146.0, 883.0). (Figure 1) In subgroup analysis there was some indication of a potential increase in depression diagnoses (Figure 2) in Hispanic women (507.4 excess cases, 95% CI: -516.1, 1418.2).

Conclusion:
EHR data in TX indicate increasing rates of maternal mental health morbidity before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, which did not revert or stabilize once the crisis was over, and abortion restrictions begun. Further work is necessary to establish the long-term impacts of abortion bans and the Dobbs decision on maternal mental health.