Nearly 22.5 million women now live in a state where they legally cannot go through with a divorce while pregnant [View all]

[RandySF]

Four states restrict divorce during pregnancy, and, with a decision by the Arizona Supreme Court this week, now all four also have near-total bans on abortion.

It’s a combination that can be fatal, say experts on domestic violence.

A study recently published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons found that states that restricted abortion access from 2018 to 2020 had a 75 percent higher rate of peripartum homicide — people who were killed while pregnant or in their first year after giving birth — than states without restrictions. The same trend did not hold in homicide rates for men. Firearms were used in 63 percent of all peripartum homicides. These statistics underscore the connection between reproductive rights, domestic violence and gun violence in the United States.

Arizona’s abortion law, passed in 1864, was upheld by the Arizona Supreme Court on Tuesday. It had been blocked for years by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade but was brought back into the spotlight after its overturn in 2022. State legislators tried Wednesday to repeal the law ,but were blocked by Republican leadership.






https://19thnews.org/2024/04/states-abortion-bans-divorce-restrictions-domestic-violence/