Photo by Volodymyr Hryshchenko on Unsplash

With the release of the Supreme Court’s Decision in the Dobbs case and the overturn of Roe v. Wade, abortion is now limited in at least 26 states. While those in the prolife camp celebrate, many are questioning what these new limits will mean for other aspects of women’s healthcare. One of these is relatively new genetic screening technology that allows physicians to flag markers for various disabilities early in pregnancy with a simple blood test. These noninvasive prenatal tests (NIPTs) are the same tests that allow parents to learn the sex of their baby in the first trimester.

As exciting as it may be to have access to this information about twice as fast as the standard 20-week anatomy scan, parents have reasons to be cautious. The primary purpose of these tests is not to determine gender, but rather to rule out genetic conditions. These genetic screening tests are routinely offered to pregnant women and often covered by insurance, despite being unregulated by the FDA. According to standard of care, any results must be confirmed by additional diagnostic tests such as ultrasound or amniocentesis later in pregnancy. In practice, however, it isn’t playing out this way.

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