Reproductive Justice in the Post-Roe v. Wade Era: Examining Reactions to Dobbs v. Jackson and Psychological Distress Among Cisgender Women and People Assigned Female at Birth

Abstract

In the present study, we examined relations among reactions to the Dobbs v. Jackson court ruling (heretofore adverse reactions), psychological distress, collective action, and abortion history among cisgender women and people assigned female at birth. Specifically, we examined the ways in which the relation between adverse reactions to the Dobbs v. Jackson decision and psychological distress may vary according to involvement in reproductive justice and antiabortion collective action and abortion history. Results ( n = 894) revealed that adverse reactions were significantly positively related to psychological distress. Furthermore, involvement in reproductive justice collective action was significantly positive to psychological distress whereas the relation between antiabortion collective action and psychological distress was nonsignificant. The positive relation between adverse reactions and psychological distress was exacerbated by high levels of involvement in reproductive justice and weakened by low levels of involvement in antiabortion collective action, and these relations did not vary according to abortion history. In addition, the relation between involvement in antiabortion collective action and psychological distress was significant and positive among those who had had an abortion and nonsignificant for those who had not. These findings reveal the importance of mental health providers attending to their clients’ abortion-related beliefs and histories, involvement in collective action, and psychological distress. Additional online materials for this article are available on PWQ's website at https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/03616843231210219 .