The abortion ban has put the health of many women at risk, but some groups of women, including Black women, may experience worse health outcomes. Now the abortion ban may affect the lives of cancer patients. America’s leading cancer societies warn that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade will limit cancer treatment options for pregnant women and put lives needlessly at risk.
About one in every 1,000 women who are pregnant will wind up being diagnosed with cancer, says Lisa Coussens, president of the American Association for Cancer Research.
“It’s not a trivial number, and rapid and well-informed decisions about care with a cancer diagnosis is critical,” Coussens adds. “Rapid access to quality care is also absolutely essential and lifesaving.”
Unfortunately, last month’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is expected to make cancer treatment much more complicated for pregnant women.
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As you can probably guess, many treatments and therapies that cure cancer can cause either miscarriage or birth defects, particularly early in pregnancy.
Radiation therapy and chemotherapy in particular can do terrible damage to a developing fetus, says Dr. Julie Gralow, chief medical officer for the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
“Chemotherapy for the most part impacts cell division, right? I mean, that’s one of the main ways it kills cancer cells, because they just can’t go on and divide and replicate and grow and spread. And that’s what a fetus is all about, right?” Gralow shares. “You’ve got developing cells that need to divide and grow and differentiate. And that’s exactly what chemotherapy blocks.”
Radiation therapy is also never given to pregnant patients, no matter where the cancer is located, notes Karen Knudsen, CEO of the American Cancer Society.
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“This is putting women in really an awful, untenable situation,” Knudsen notes. “A woman with a cancer diagnosis would not be able to consider a therapeutic abortion, and then would have to make the decision about potentially not receiving lifesaving treatment against her cancer because of the impact on the fetus.”
RELATED: Why Black Women Will be Most Affected by Roe v. Wade Being Overturned abortion ban
Balancing the life of the mother against her baby is now harder
Pregnant cancer patients might also be denied access to certain cancer drugs that are known to cause miscarriages, like methotrexate or imatinib (Gleevec), Coussens and Gralow says.
Pharmacy chains like Walgreens, CVS and Walmart have all started to limit access to
