Infant mortality increased in states that enacted six-week or total abortion bans in recent years, according to a new study.
Public health researchers expected a shift, but the numbers slightly exceeded their estimates. The analysis, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, predicted 5.93 infant deaths per 1,000 live births in 14 states that implemented abortion bans between 2012 and 2023. But the actual rate was 6.26 per 1,000 live births. This led to 478 excess infant deaths in states with abortion bans after the legislation took effect.
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Some parents were impacted more severely than others. Researchers observed a 10.98% increase in mortality among Black babies compared to other racial and ethnic groups. Similarly, there was a 10.87% rise in deaths among infants with congenital anomalies relative to the rest of the population.
Geography played a factor, too. There were greater increases in infant deaths in Southern states relative to the rest of the country, with Texas providing a "dominant influence on the overall results."
A separate study examining birth rates over the same time period found higher fertility in states where abortion was heavily restricted or banned, resulting in an estimated 22,180 excess births.
"Documenting these findings is enormously important and is exactly what academic journals should be doing when societies face complicated and difficult issues such as access to abortion," wrote Dr. Sandro Galea, an epidemiologist and dean at the Boston University School of Public Health.
"It is then on societies to engage with these data and shift values as critical inputs into our collective decision-making that shapes the world we live in, and that inevitably shapes our health."
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