Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law Carson and Carter ▪ Abortion as a Public Health Risk Forthcoming in an issue of Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law. Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law is published by Duke University Press. DOI: 10.1215/03616878-10449950. Abortion as a Public Health Risk in Covid-19 Anti-Abortion Legislation Saphronia Carson Shannon K. Carter University of Central Florida Abstract During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, twelve states banned or restricted abortion access under elective procedure restrictions. The rationale was preserving hospital capacity and personal protective equipment (PPE), however abortions commonly take place in clinics and use less PPE than childbirth. This paper investigates the discursive construction of abortions, the people who get them, and fetuses in this legislation. The authors collaborated to analyze 13 anti- abortion documents using an iterative process of thematic coding and memo-writing. Twenty- three percent of the legislation listed abortion as banned, whereas the remaining laws implied abortion within the terms “elective” or “non-essential.” Legislation used common anti-abortion tactics, such as trivialization of abortion, risk discourses, and constructions of motherhood and fetal personhood. Discourses delegitimized abortion providers and used quasi-medical justifications for banning abortion. Finally, legislation constructed abortion clinics as sites of contagion and waste, and consequently as risks to public health. Results highlight the vulnerability of abortion and the connection between abortion policy and other conservative policy, and gesture towards a strategic attempt to federally ban abortion. Thus, these findings have several implications for a post-Roe US and for various stakeholders wishing to increase abortion access. Keywords Abortion, COVID-19, discourse, legislation, public health Spring 2020 was a chaotic time filled with confusion, anxiety, and rapid change that set the tone for much of the ensuing year. As the COVID-19 virus spread across continents, arriving in the United States in February, mass panic combined with national leadership unprepared for a pandemic of this scale fostered the spread of misinformation surrounding health and safety (Taylor 2021). Within this context, US state legislatures implemented measures to limit public interaction to stop the spread of the virus (Taylor 2021). Many states restricted access to elective medical procedures that could be delayed without risking the patient’s health and safety (NWLC 2021). In twelve states, elective procedure restrictions were applied to abortions, supported by arguments that abortions take up unnecessary capacity in hospitals and use up valuable personal UNEDITED MANUSCRIPT Downloaded from http://read.dukeupress.edu/jhppl/article-pdf/doi/10.1215/03616878-10449950/1795617/10449950.pdf by guest on 26 January 2023