NEW BRUNSWICK – The 2022 Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade has produced two somewhat contradictory results.

It has created no small degree of chaos by throwing abortion rights back to the states.

And it has given Democrats a great election issue.

Beginning with the 2022 midterm, Dems have exceeded expectations in a post-Roe world. It may have been under the radar but Democrats gained six seats last fall in the state Legislature. Moreover, seven states have held abortion-related referendums in the last two years and the abortion rights side has won every one.

Clearly, Democrats hope this is a political gift that keeps on giving.

Rep Frank Pallone on Wednesday convened a “roundtable” to highlight a report done by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Pallone is the ranking member.

The roundtable discussion at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School emphasized what Pallone termed alarming findings of the report released by his committee.

The report’s title, “It Will Only Get Worse,” aptly sums up the findings.

It concentrated on how the Dobbs decision has adversely impacted women’s health and the future of medical education.

Specifically, the congressman from CD-6 spanning parts of Middlesex and Monmouth counties, talked about states where abortion rights have been severely restricted, or even ended. He said that movement has spilled into other areas with myriad problems.

He spoke of “degraded training” for OBGYNs, noting that residency programs in “restricted states” do not train physicians how to handle life-threatening pregnancy complications.

That results in patients experiencing “severe outcomes, including death, due to the inability of physicians to provide timely and appropriate care,” the report says.

Institutions in states like New Jersey, where abortion rights are protected, can pick up the slack. However, their programs are often strained by the need to accommodate out-of-state residents, Pallone said.

Participants in the roundtable included representatives from New Jersey Planned Parenthood, Physicians for Reproductive Health, Rutgers University faculty and students, and members of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

All agreed with the report’s conclusion, noting that such problems arise when individual states make their own rules regarding reproductive rights.

This is basically a medical issue, but one suspects no one at Wednesday’s event was unaware of the politics.

Democrats are pro-choice; Republicans generally are not.

That divide has broken in favor of the Democrats for the last two years and may indeed do so again.

Events of this type dramatize that debate and also serve as a rallying cry of sorts.

In the midst of the hour-long discussion, Pallone got around to the politics and the stakes of this year’s election.

He said that if Republicans were in control, “they would try to make abortion illegal nationally.” He added:
“So that’s the problem we are facing in this very political environment.”