Medical and health care experts are concerned about the ramifications of the U.S. Supreme Court's reversal of the landmark Roe v Wade decision, warning that it could lead to an increase in maternal mortality.

On Friday, in a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court overturned the 1973 ruling which established the constitutional right to abortion, triggering several laws outlawing abortions in roughly half of the U.S.

Experts have called for urgent action to protect remaining reproductive rights and the health of patients, especially for people of color, who will be disproportionately affected.

Current state bans could lead to an additional 75,000 births a year for those who can’t access abortions, the Guardian reports.

The U.S. has one of the highest maternal mortality rates compared to other developed countries – In 2020, 23.8 people died from pregnancy or childbirth-related causes for every 100,000 births.

Black women will be heavily impacted by the reversal of Roe v. Wade – they seek abortions at higher rates due to a lack of access to contraceptives and partly because they are more likely to face more dangerous complications during pregnancies.

According to research published in the American Journal of Public Health, the maternal mortality rate for non-Hispanic Black women was 3.55 times compared to their white counterparts.

Experts say that states with abortion restrictions have the highest rates of maternal mortality.

A 2021 report in the American Journal of Public Health found that states with restrictive abortion laws had a seven percent higher maternal mortality rate compared to other states.

States that lost Planned Parenthood clinics between 2006 and 2015 saw an eight percent increase in their maternal mortality rates.

After the court's ruling, the Biden administration released the White House Blueprint for Addressing the Maternal Health Crisis, which plans to expand healthcare coverage to lower-income Americans and other policies to support pregnant people.

People working in the fertility industry are also raising concerns about the reversal of Roe v. Wade.

Experts say the impact on the sector remains uncertain, both in how certain abortion restrictions can be interpreted and how lawmakers and local prosecutors seek to push these laws.

The fertility industry takes in $8 billion annually and has added births, including more than 83,000 children in 2019. Many of these births involved in vitro fertilization (IVF), an assisted reproductive method that brings together eggs and sperm outside the body to create an embryo.

Experts are concerned that because of a lack of clarity in some of the restrictions it will impact what treatments doctors and clinician working with IVF patients and decisions people will make in pursuing their families.

When an individual chooses to use IVF, the work begins in a lab, where a sperm fertilizes an egg with the goal of transferring an embryo into a uterus. Clinics use two people’s genetic material to create multiple embryos because they don’t know when one will grow at the right stage or lead to a successful pregnancy.

Many are concerned that clinics or freezers could face criminal charges if they dispose of embryos or if a freezer malfunctions.

For some states, IVF and assisted reproductive technologies were exempted from their abortion restrictions, but the concerns remain for many doctors about the future of the practice.