“Texas teen fertility rates in 2022 increased for the first time in 15 years — after the state implemented its six-week abortion ban a year earlier — and overall fertility rates increased by 2%,” the Abilene Reporter News reports. “The year-over-year increase in 2022 was most pronounced among Hispanic women ages 25-44, whose fertility rate jumped 8%. This highlights potential differences in access to contraception and out-of-state abortion care.”Said Elizabeth Gregory, director of the study: “We may be seeing the effect of older Hispanic women who might previously have sought abortions — perhaps because they already had children and were already struggling to support their family financially. And now they will have more people to feed — it could push families into more poverty.”

Source: ABC News January 24, 2024 17:36 UTC