Infant mortality rate rose 8% in wake of Texas abortion ban, study shows
In the wake of Texas’ abortion ban, the state’s infant death rate increased and more died of birth defects, a study published by Johns Hopkins University shows.
The analysis is the latest research to find higher infant mortality rates in states with abortion restrictions.
The researchers looked at how many infants died before their first birthday after Texas adopted an abortion ban in September 2021. They compared infant deaths in Texas to those in 28 states — some also with restrictions. The researchers calculated that there were 216 more deaths in Texas than expected between March and December the next year.
In Texas, the 2022 mortality rate for infants went up 8% to 5.75 per 1,000 births, compared with a 2% increase in the rest of the U.S., according to the study published June 24 in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.
Among causes of death, birth defects showed a 23% increase, compared with a decrease of about 3% in the rest of the U.S.
Two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade, the debate over abortion access is playing out in elections and the courts.
Texas law had blocked abortions after the detection of cardiac activity, usually five or six weeks into pregnancy, well before tests are done to detect fetal abnormalities. A newer law bans the procedure at any point in a pregnancy, except when a pregnant patient has a life-threatening condition.
“I think these findings make clear the potentially devastating consequences that abortion bans can have,” said report co-author Suzanne Bell, a fertility researcher.
Doctors have argued that the law is too restrictive toward women who face pregnancy complications, though the state’s Supreme Court last month rejected a case that sought to weaken it.
Infant deaths are relatively rare, Bell said, so the team was a bit surprised by the findings. Because of the small numbers, the researchers could not parse out the rates for different populations, for example, to see if rates were rising more for certain races or socioeconomic groups.
The Biden administration is telling emergency room doctors they must perform emergency abortions when necessary to save a pregnant woman’s health.
But the results did not come as a surprise to Tiffany Green, a University of Wisconsin-Madison economist and population health scientist who studies the consequences of racial inequities on reproductive health.
She said the results were in line with earlier research on racial disparities in infant mortality rates due to state differences in Medicaid funding for abortions. Many of the people who get abortions are vulnerable to pregnancy complications, said Green, who was not part of the research.
Stephen Chasen, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist with Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, said abortion restrictions have other consequences. Chasen, who had no role in the research, said people who carry out pregnancies with fetal anomalies need extra support, education and specialized medical care for the mother and newborn — all of which require resources.
Shastri writes for the Associated Press.
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