Study Shows Rise In Infant Deaths Following Abortion Bans In The US

A new study shows that there has been a significant rise in infant deaths in the months following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. The study was published on Monday in JAMA Pediatrics. The study also highlighted that a majority of these infants had congenital anomalies or birth defects.

Dr Parvati Singh, an assistant professor of epidemiology at The Ohio State University College of Public Health and lead author of the new study said, “This is evidence of a national ripple effect, regardless of state-level status.”

Singh and co-author Dr Maria Gallo, a professor of epidemiology and associate dean of research with the Ohio State University College of Public Health, compared infant mortality rates for the 18 months following the Dobbs decision against historical trends.

They found that infant mortality was higher than usual in the US in several months after the Dobbs decision and never dropped to rates that were lower than expected, according to a report in CNN.

October 2022, March 2023 and April 2023 had higher infant mortality than expected. The rates were nearly 7% higher than usual which led to an average of 247 more infant deaths in each of those months.

The new study also says that about 80% of those additional infant deaths could be attributed to congenital anomalies, which were higher than expected in six of the 18 months following the Dobbs decision

Singh said, “This is the tip of the iceberg. Mortality is the ultimate outcome of any health condition. This is a very, very acute indicator. It could be representative of underlying morbidity and underlying hardship.”

Other research has found that births have increased in states with abortion bans. Experts say that some of that increase is linked to a disproportionate rise in the number of women who are carrying fetuses with lethal congenital anomalies to term.

Dr Ushma Upadhyay, an associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Reproductive Science at the University of California, San Francisco said, “Whether the pregnancy was wanted or unwanted, we know that many of these are pregnancies that would have ended in abortion had people had access to those services.”

She was not involved in the new study but does research abortion trends in the US. Upadhyay said, “The well-being of a pregnant person is inextricably linked to the well-being of the pregnancy.” Abortion bans may affect access to and willingness to seek prenatal care and broader support systems, she said and the barriers compound.

She added, “People who face the most structural barriers in terms of poverty, lower levels of education, food insecurity, and other life stressors can’t access abortion care, and these factors also increase their risks of poor pregnancy and birth outcomes.”

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