In the 18 months after the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, leading more than a dozen states to implement near-total abortion bans, hundreds more babies died than expected, new research has found.
The study, which was conducted by researchers from the Ohio State University and published on Monday in Jama Pediatrics, compared data on infant mortality from the months before Roe’s downfall with data from afterward. Overall infant mortality, they found, rose by 7% in October 2022, March 2023 and April 2023.
On average, in those months, researchers found that there were roughly 247 more infant deaths a month than expected. In six out of those 18 months, mortality among infants with congenital anomalies rose by 10%. In those months, there were about 210 more deaths a month than expected.
Infant mortality rates never dropped lower than expected.
This study is the latest to examine how Roe’s demise has affected babies’ health. In June, another study estimated that, after Texas outlawed abortions past roughly six weeks of pregnancy, the number of infants who died in their first year of life rose by 13%.
The researchers behind that study also found that deaths among infants with congenital anomalies spiked.
These conditions can frequently be detected in utero and, in states where abortion is still legal, lead people to terminate their pregnancies, especially since they may be incompatible with life. However, that may no longer be an option for people living under abortion bans.
“Any infant death is tragic, but then layering on top of that, this pregnant person’s situation where they know that they’re carrying a fetus that is incompatible with life, whereas before, they maybe would have had the option to terminate,” Alison Gemmill, the lead author of the June study and an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told the Guardian after her study was released.
The study released on Monday did not break down infant mortality rates by state.
Abortion bans have also threatened pregnant women’s health. Dozens of women from across the country have said that, due to highly restrictive bans, they were denied medically necessary abortions.
Two women, Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller, died in Georgia after being unable to access legal abortions due to the state’s six-week abortion ban, ProPublica has reported.
• This article was amended on 22 October 2024. The stated rise in the number of infant deaths to 247 more than expected refers to three specific months – October 2022, March 2023 and April 2023 – not every month following the supreme court decision.
