Skip to main content
SMFM 2024 Pregnancy Meeting Main banner
Final Program


Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.
Presentation Icons
Additional registration fee required
Additional registration fee required
Faculty have requested this content not be shared on social media
Faculty have requested this content not be shared on social media
CME Credit Offered
CME Credit Offered
Poster Icons
Foundation Awardee
Foundation Awardee
No Social Media
No Social Media
Back
Q&A

Public Health/Global Health

Poster Session 4

(1121) Prenatal Diagnosis Post-Dobbs in an Abortion-Banned State: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Wednesday, February 14, 2024
1:00 PM – 2:30 PM  
Location: Prince George's Exhibit Hall CDE, Lower Atrium Level
Objective: Following the ruling of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (Dobbs), Tennessee became an abortion-banned state. The impact of abortion bans on diagnostic prenatal genetic testing was unknown. We sought to examine the frequency and characteristics of women undergoing prenatal diagnostic genetic testing before and after Dobbs.

Study Design:

A retrospective cohort study (IRB #5070) examined viable pregnancies electing diagnostic genetic testing by either chorionic villus sampling (CVS) or amniocentesis during two 9-month periods before and after Dobbs at our regional MFM practice. Cases were identified by CPT codes; demographic information, procedure details, and results were collected for comparison. Area deprivation index (ADI) rankings and cross tabulation tables were created; chi-square tests were used to determine significance.

Results: 119 patients underwent diagnostic genetic testing during the periods studied (7/1/18 to 3/31/19 = 48; 7/1/22 to 3/31/23 = 71). Demographic characteristics are shown in Table 1. No difference in race, age at delivery, or gestational age (GA) at the time of testing were noted; however, GA at the time of testing for CVS procedures was statistically lower post Dobbs (12.88 vs. 11.99 weeks, p=.024). Prior to Dobbs, CVS accounted for 16.7% of diagnostic procedures (11.2 per thousand 1st trimester exams (76801)), compared to 26.8% post-Dobbs (19.5 per thousand 76801). After Dobbs, a significantly higher proportion of patients undergoing CVS for diagnostic testing were publicly insured (0% vs. 52.6%, p=.012) while ADI ranking did not differ.

Conclusion:

Following events that limited access to in-state abortion, we observed an increase in the number of patients seeking diagnostic genetic testing and a larger proportion undergoing CVS. We also observed an increase in pre-pregnancy BMI and public insurance status with a decrease in GA at the time of CVS. Further work will be aimed at determining the impact of this increased and earlier testing and explore the association with insurance status and BMI.