Incidence of induced abortion among commercially insured pregnant patients with cancer

This study aimed to characterize pregnancy outcomes and the incidence of induced abortion among pregnant people with a diagnosis of malignancy. We conducted a retrospective cohort study among privately insured people aged 12 to 55 years from the fourth quarter of 2015−2020 using US claims data from Merative MarketScan Research Databases. We included pregnancies from seven states with favorable policies for private insurance coverage of abortion. There were 1471 of 183,685 (0.8%) pregnancies with a cancer diagnosis. Among those receiving anticancer therapy, 21.6% (95% CI: 14.4–30.4%) underwent induced abortion compared with 10.9% (95% CI: 10.8–11.1%) of pregnant patients without a cancer diagnosis. Abortion restrictions may affect many pregnant women requiring cancer treatment in early pregnancy.