Key PointsQuestion What are the prevalence and timing of prenatal exposure to teratogenic medications and prenatal care initiation relative to legal abortion cutoffs? Objective To investigate the prevalence of prenatal exposure to teratogenic medications and prenatal care initiation across gestational weeks. Timing of prenatal teratogenic exposure was compared with timing of prenatal care initiation and legal abortion cutoffs. First Prenatal VisitsWe identified prenatal care initiation based on encounters with obstetricians, prenatal care practitioners, or primary care practitioners that were coded with specific stand-alone procedure codes (Current Procedural Terminology or HCPCS) indicating prenatal care or that included a diagnosis code for pregnancy. For each gestational period, we categorized pregnancies with teratogen exposure regarding timing of prenatal care initiation as the first prenatal care visit before teratogen exposure, the first prenatal care visit after teratogen exposure but within the evaluated gestational period (ie, the period between conception and the given gestational week), or the first prenatal care visit after the evaluated gestational period or no prenatal care (eFigure 1 in Supplement 1).

Source: New York Times February 01, 2024 17:01 UTC