Miss Hannah Carpenter1
1The University Of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, United States
Biography:
Hannah Carpenter is currently a third-year Ph.D. student studying Bioethics and Health Humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, United States. Hannah is from England and has previous experience working as a paralegal for several UK-based medical law firms and in fertility policy where she worked for the United Kingdom’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. Hannah’s research focuses on the intersections of reproductive ethics, law, and justice.
Abstract:
The complexity of pregnancy and the significance of the medical risks pregnant persons can encounter during gestation necessitate obtaining adequate clinical data to inform dosing and ensure safety in treatments. Despite the need for access to safe and effective treatments throughout all trimesters of pregnancy, pregnant persons are often excluded from clinical trials. In the wake of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, there is an increased need to improve the understanding of the safety of medicine during pregnancy due to the projected rise of pregnancies. Dobbs may exacerbate the exclusion of pregnant persons from research due to potential liability concerns relating to fetal harm, restrictions on funding for abortion or pregnancy-related research, and the lack of access to abortion as a safety precaution. Such exclusion could impact progress in maternal-fetal health, and further limit access to needed evidence-based medicine, leading to increased mortality rates and perpetuating the unjust treatment of pregnant individuals who experience disparate health outcomes. In this presentation, I argue that while calls for research inclusion are necessary, responsible inclusion must consider the increased criminal and civil risks to pregnant persons, and potentially researchers, in the post-Dobbs landscape. I demonstrate how this dichotomy necessitates a thoughtful balance that considers the extent of harm both inclusion and exclusion could pose. This is crucial so that research does not become another avenue in which pregnant persons are penalized, but also ensures that they are not jeopardized by decisions made in light of restrictive abortion legislation that could impede their access to research benefits necessary for healthcare.