More babies are dying in Texas, according to an explosive new medical study, after the state passed a draconian abortion law in 2021 that basically bans the procedure except in rare cases.
A team of researchers led by John Hopkins University came to this alarming conclusion after analyzing more than 94,000 recorded baby deaths in Texas and 28 other states, detailing their findings in a study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.
The researchers first looked at mortality data between 2018 and 2022 in Texas, along with 28 other states for comparison. They also analyzed recorded deaths in Texas from March to December 2022, calculating backwards that March births were the first pregnancies impacted by the abortion law that went into effect in September 2021.
After crunching numbers, they saw that significantly more babies died in Texas in 2022 compared to 2021, jumping from 1,985 to 2,240, for an increase of 12.9 percent. Other states, in comparison, had a smaller increase at 1.8 percent over the same time period. The researchers also saw a spike in the number of babies dying with congenital defects in Texas.
Why is this the case? Texas now basically bans abortion five to six weeks into a pregnancy, when a fetal heartbeat is detected, and even doesn't allow the procedure to be performed for detected fetal abnormalities or in cases of rape and incest. The only exception is if the pregnant mother is at risk of dying or being significantly harmed by continuing the pregnancy.
Texas lawmakers made these abortion restrictions legal several months before the 2022 US Supreme Court decision to strike down Roe v. Wade, a 1973 case that had previously established abortion as a Constitutional right.
Critics of the ban argue that women often don't know they are pregnant at six weeks and that it's too early a time to detect any congenital abnormalities in fetuses.
"Our results suggest that restrictive abortion policies that limit pregnant people’s ability to terminate pregnancies, particularly those with fetal abnormalities diagnosed later in pregnancy, may lead to increases in infant mortality," John Hopkins University assistant professor and one of the study's lead authors Suzanne Bell said in a statement about the research. "These findings make clear the potentially devastating consequences abortion bans can have on pregnant people and families who are unable to overcome barriers to this essential reproductive health service."
After reading this study, you can't help but ask: are we putting babies and women through needless suffering when we ban abortion?
That's something that anti-abortion proponents should ponder as they push for stricter abortion laws in America and elsewhere.
More on abortion: Google Says It Will Automatically Delete Abortion Clinic Visits From Users' History
Share This Article