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Abortion Bans have resulted in Increased Infant Mortality in Red States [1]

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Date: 2024-06-27  

A pair of recent new studies of states with abortion bans have generated shocking results, the rate of infant deaths has greatly increased in Texas which has implemented a 6-week abortion ban without any exceptions.

[Focusing] on a Texas law that came into effect in September 2021, which prohibited abortion after a fetal heartbeat could be detected -- putting about a six-week limit on the procedure, with no exceptions for congenital anomalies. Researchers say that trends observed since the Texas law came into effect can inform what may also be happening in states where bans came after the 2022 Supreme Court ruling. By reviewing death certificates, scientists noted a 12.9 percent increase in the number of deaths of babies under a year old in Texas from 2021 to 2022, as compared with a 1.8 percent rise when all states but Texas were considered. Also from 2021 to 2022, researchers saw a 22.9 percent increase in Texas in the number of deaths of newborns that were linked to congenital illnesses -- the primary cause of infant mortality. "These findings suggest that restrictive abortion policies may have important unintended consequences in terms of infant health and the associated trauma to families and medical costs," said Alison Gemmill, the study's main author and a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Texas has since banned all abortions, except in cases where the mother's life is in danger. But fear of prosecution has led some doctors in the Lone Star State to refuse to intervene even when patients experience serious complications during a pregnancy, according to testimony from women.

So even though they claim that they are “protecting life” they are actually only increasing death.

The report which was generated by JAMA also so a second set of negative consequences in anti-abortion states.

The first study, published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), shows that in states where abortion is illegal, there is a corresponding significant drop in the number of birth-control and morning-after pills dispensed by pharmacies. Birth-control pills, taken once a day, are the most widely used method of hormonal contraception in the country. The morning-after pill is an emergency contraceptive (EC), taken shortly after unprotected sex or when another method has failed. For the study, researchers analyzed more than 143 million prescriptions written between March 2021 and October 2023. They say the drop may be explained by the closing of family planning clinics where abortions were performed, and which also provided other reproductive health services, such as prescribing oral contraceptive pills (OCPs). There is also confusion in some states as to whether morning-after pills remain legal, or are considered to be a method of abortion, the study said.

The “Morning After” pill does not cause an abortion — it prevents fertilization of an egg immediately after sex, which prevents the need for an abortion to be performed. Similarly, hormonal birth control performs a similar function to prevent a pregnancy. The closing of women’s health clinics means that accurate information an advice from qualified professionals has become more difficult to attain.

This trend is likely further enhanced by the “Pro-Life” movement’s push against Contraception.

When the Supreme Court’s decision undoing Roe v. Wade came down in June, anti-abortion groups were jubilant – but far from satisfied. Many in the movement have a new target: hormonal birth control. It seems contradictory; doesn’t preventing unwanted pregnancies also prevent abortions? But anti-abortion groups don’t see it that way. They claim that hormonal contraceptives like IUDs and the pill can actually cause abortions. One prominent group making this claim is Students for Life of America, whose president has said she wants contraceptives like IUDs and birth control pills to be illegal. The fast-growing group has built a social media campaign spreading the false idea that hormonal birth control is an abortifacient. Reveal’s Amy Mostafa teams up with UC Berkeley journalism and law students to dig into the world of young anti-abortion influencers and how medical misinformation gains traction on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, with far-reaching consequences. Tens of millions of Americans use hormonal contraceptives to prevent pregnancy and regulate their health. And many have well-founded complaints about side effects, from nausea to depression – not to mention well-justified anger about how the medical establishment often pooh-poohs those concerns. Anti-abortion and religious activists have jumped into the fray, urging people to reject hormonal birth control as “toxic” and promoting non-hormonal “fertility awareness” methods – a movement they’re trying to rebrand as “green sex.” Mother Jones Senior Editor Kiera Butler explains how secular wellness influencers such as Jolene Brighten, who sells a $300 birth control “hormone reset,” are having their messages adopted by anti-abortion influencers, many of them with deep ties to Catholic institutions.

So birth control is “bad.” Condoms are “bad”. IUDs are “bad.” And the result here, besides attempting a round-about way to prevent people from having sex, is that there are more people who are likely to have unwanted and unexpected pregnancies.

And pregnancies with congenital problems.

Many of these cases with congenital illness could have been detected during gestation, and the normal result would have been an abortion - but instead these fatally flawed fetuses and being brought to term, and birth — only to die immediately afterward. Also, there are many women whose own health and lives have been put at greater risk by denying the procedures that are capable of helping them.

A pregnant Texas woman who says her unborn baby has a genetic condition and carrying the child to term could threaten her life filed suit against the state Tuesday, asking a court to declare she has the right to terminate the pregnancy. Kate Cox said the state’s current abortion ban puts her husband and her gynecologist at legal risk if she has an abortion in Texas. The lawsuit is believed to be one of the first attempts in the country by an individual seeking a court-ordered abortion since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, according to the New York Times. “Ms. Cox is currently 20 weeks pregnant, and she has been to three different emergency rooms in the last month due to severe cramping and unidentifiable fluid leaks,” according to the lawsuit. “Because Ms. Cox has had two prior cesarean surgeries (‘C-sections’), continuing the pregnancy puts her at high risk for severe complications threatening her life and future fertility, including uterine rupture and hysterectomy.” The lawsuit says Cox’s baby was diagnosed with trisomy 18 and is not expected to live more than a few days outside the womb. “Ms. Cox’s physicians have informed her that their ‘hands are tied’ and she will have to wait until her baby dies inside her or carry the pregnancy to term, at which point she will be forced to have a third C-section, only to watch her baby suffer until death,” the lawsuit states. Trisomy 18, sometimes called Edwards syndrome, is a chromosomal condition that can cause heart defects and other organ abnormalities. In at least 95% of cases, the fetus doesn’t survive full-term, and the pregnancy ends in miscarriage or stillbirth, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Many children who are born with it die within a few days, and more than 90% die within a year.

This case, is just another on the pile which has been growing rapidly and has already generated a lawsuit.

The Center for Reproductive Rights is expected to add eight more women to a lawsuit it filed against Texas over its abortion ban, claiming their lives were put at risk due to the law. This brings the total number of plaintiffs to 15. The suit alleged that Texas' abortion bans have denied the plaintiffs and countless other pregnant people necessary and potentially life-saving medical care because physicians in the state fear liability, according to a draft of the complaint shared with ABC News.

[…] Under Texas' bans, it is a second-degree felony to perform or attempt an abortion, punishable by up to life in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. The law also allows private citizens to sue anyone who "aids or abets" an abortion. The lawsuit is asking a judge to temporarily and permanently suspend the Texas law due to the uncertainty surrounding the meaning of the exception in the state's abortion bans. The suit also alleged that the abortion bans have caused and threaten to cause irreparable injury to the patient plaintiffs and the patients of physician plaintiffs filing the suit.

Let’s recall, as I’ve already written, both Infant Mortality and Maternal Mortality were already far worse in Red states that have implemented Abortion Bans.

Many in the pro-life movement made getting rid of Roe the goal. It was treated like a political victory, like taking an opponent’s sword after some 18th century battle, instead of supporting a myriad of policies that would actually do something about supporting not just life, but a quality of life worth living. See the connection between mortality rates and antiabortion laws. Take the case of maternal mortality rates. California has the lowest recorded maternal mortality rate (4.0 mother deaths per 100,000 births). It’s not an accident, as this death rate plunged by more than 50% since the state passed the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative in 2006. Massachusetts, Nevada, Connecticut and Colorado also round out the lowest five states for recorded maternal mortality rates (between 8.4 and 11.5 per 100,000 births), according to World Population Review. All took deliberate steps to help a mother during the process of birth. Louisiana, on the other hand, has a shocking 58.1 maternal deaths per 100,000 births, the highest in America. Not coincidentally, it has the strictest anti-abortion laws in the country, according to a CBS analysis of state policies. Then there’s Arkansas, with the fourth toughest anti-abortion laws, and the fifth highest maternal mortality rate (37.5 per 100,000 births). Missouri, which is tied with Arkansas for fourth toughest antiabortion laws, is seventh on the maternal mortality rate list from WPR (37.5 per 100k births). Texas, Alabama, South Carolina, and Indiana are also in the top 19 states toughest abortion laws, and the top 10 states for maternal mortality rates (each with more than 27 mothers dying per 100,000 births). Have those who pushed for pro-life policies worked just as hard for universal health care, universal child care, or even voted for paid family and medical leave? How many babies will be born into a world that lacks such basic protections that most of the developed world offers? Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Indiana, and Ohio are in the top 10 of states with the highest infant mortality rate (according to World Atlas, and are among the states with the top 19 toughest antiabortion laws.

This means that Texas, which was already in the Top 10 states with the highest Maternal mortality rate, and at #28 for Infant Mortality - has just gotten 22% worse.

Driving qualified and talented OBG/YN doctors out of the state for fear of felony prosecution can have devastating consequences.

Because some women have been able to travel to states where abortion is still legal, the actual number and rate of abortions has gone up since Dobbs.

In the year following the Supreme Court Dobbs decision, the abortion landscape in the United States became more fractured than ever. Abortions increased nationwide, according to a new report from #WeCount, a research project led by the Society of Family Planning — the average monthly change in the 12 months post-Dobbs compared to the two months pre-Dobbs adds up to about 2,200 more abortions over the course of a year. See where abortions are banned and legal — and where it’s still in limbo But the trends diverged sharply based on state policy, with abortions all but stopped in states with bans and significant increases in many states where abortion remained legal. There were about 115,000 fewer abortions in the 17 states with total or six-week bans in effect, plummeting 98% in banned states and dropping 40% in those with 6-week gestational limits, according to the new report. About a third of the overall decline can be attributed to Texas. The remaining 33 states where abortion remained legal, along with the District of Columbia, recorded nearly 117,000 more abortions — a 14% increase year-over-year. “This is a sign of increasing inequality of access,” said Caitlin Myers, a professor of economics at Middlebury College. Her research has focused on abortion trends, but she was not involved in the new analysis. “Whether somebody who wants to access abortion can actually do so depends more than ever on where they live,” she said.

They haven’t stopped abortions, they’ve just moved where they’re taking place. Abortions are up. Infant deaths and Maternal mortality in abortion states were already high, and now they’ve gone even higher.

There is no aspect of this policy that hasn’t been a disaster and has caused even more deaths and far greater health risks than we had before.

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