Abstract
PURPOSE: The United States Supreme Court's Dobbs decision in June 2022 may have worsened mental health among reproductive-aged women nationally. We examined whether the Dobbs decision preceded an increase in suicides among reproductive-aged women using national, monthly data, from January 2018-December 2023. METHODS: We retrieved national monthly suicide counts from January 2018 to December 2023 for women and men 15-49 years of age (overall and stratified by two age groups- 15-24 years, 25-49 years) from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research Multiple Cause of Death database. We used time series analyses to examine whether residuals of nationally aggregated counts of monthly suicides among women 15-49, 15-24- and 25-49-years of age (outcomes) exhibited higher-than-expected values following the Dobbs decision, controlling for autocorrelation and concomitant monthly series of suicides among men. RESULTS: We observed higher-than-expected residuals of suicides in July and September 2022 among 15-49-year-old women, and in September, October, December 2022 and March 2023 among 15-24-year-old women. No residual outliers were observed among 25-49-year-old women post-Dobbs. Results from time-series analyses indicate an average of 52.5 additional suicides in outlier months among 15-49-year-old women post-Dobbs (95% confidence interval [CI]: 14.85, 90.15). The increase appeared pronounced among younger age (15-24 years) women (coefficient = 19.6, 95% CI: 11.17, 28.03). Results suggest 104 additional suicides among 15-49-year-old women, and 78 excess suicides among 15-24-year-old women, nationally, post-Dobbs. CONCLUSIONS: Findings highlight the adverse impact of the Dobbs ruling on mental health among reproductive-aged women.