National abortion ban would lead to 21% jump in pregnancy-related deaths, study finds
A national ban on abortions would lead to a 21% annual jump in the number of pregnancy-related deaths, or about 140 additional deaths each year, according to a new study.
And people of color, low income people and individuals with chronic or acute health conditions would be disproportionately affected.
Black people face the greatest risks, followed by Hispanic people; a hypothetical nationwide abortion ban would lead to a 33% and 18% increase in deaths, respectively, from serious pregnancy complications in these groups in the years following the ban.
The estimates, calculated by University of Colorado Boulder researchers, don’t include the number of potential unsafe or attempted abortions, meaning there could be more pregnancy-related deaths each year.
However, experts say that even if abortion was banned across the U.S., they wouldn’t expect risky self-induced abortions to occur as frequently as they did before the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, a landmark decision that determined people have the right to an abortion. People now have access to safer abortion options, including medications available via prescription or online, the researchers noted.
“We expect a lot of women will turn to these safer forms of self-managed abortions but a lot of women will also just stay pregnant. What happens then?” Amanda Stevenson, author of the study published Oct. 25 in the journal Demography and assistant professor of sociology at the University of Colorado Boulder, said in a news release.
But what many people thought was a ruling set in stone is now being challenged in several states, spurred at least in part by the Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority. As of Sept. 1, most abortions are banned in Texas after about six weeks of pregnancy, with no exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest.
The Supreme Court heard two challenges to the Texas law on Nov. 1 from state abortion providers and the Justice Department. The court will hear a challenge to a Mississippi law outlawing abortions after 15 weeks later this year.
A May 2021 Gallup poll found 45% of Americans said abortion should be legal in “any” or “most” situations — while 33% said it should only be legal in a “few” circumstances and 19% said it should be illegal altogether. Forty-nine percent in the poll said they consider themselves “pro-choice” and 47% consider themselves “pro-life.”
Stevenson said discussions about reproductive choice should move away from how bans would contribute to unsafe, self-managed abortions and onto the “looming realities of today.”
“The takeaway here is that if you deny people abortion, pregnancy-related deaths will increase because staying pregnant is more dangerous to a woman than having an abortion,” Stevenson said. “We need to stop talking about coat hangers and start talking in an honest way about how these laws will actually impact women’s lives and mortality.”
Researchers say “carrying a pregnancy to term” (20.1 deaths per 100,000 live births) is 33 times riskier than having an abortion (0.6 deaths per 100,000 abortions).
And Black people are three times more likely to die giving birth than white people. Black people are also more likely to seek abortions because of unequal access to housing, education, jobs and health care, researchers say.
“Increasing Black women’s exposure to the risk of pregnancy-related mortality by denying them access to abortion would exacerbate an existing public health crisis,” Stevenson said.
Researchers analyzed published statistics on the number of annual abortions and births from 2014 to 2017 and calculated how many people would have continued their pregnancies if abortions had been illegal. They also considered pregnancy-related death statistics.
Data shows the number of people seeking abortions has been declining over the years; the team said the impact of a national ban could be smaller if trends continue.
This story was originally published November 2, 2021 at 1:06 PM with the headline "National abortion ban would lead to 21% jump in pregnancy-related deaths, study finds."
