No, Abortion is Not Safer Than Pregnancy

The shocking claim of a decidedly pro-abortion study is that abortion bans will expose women giving birth to “44 to 70 times higher than the mortality risk from abortion.”

The researchers claim their study shows that “comparing deaths of pregnant people and of those who have an abortion show that risk of death due to pregnancy is three times higher than previously estimated.”

“Pregnancy- and Abortion-Related Mortality in the US, 2018-2021” from researchers at the University of Maryland and Brown University was published earlier this year in the JAMA Open Network.

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Lead author Maria Steenland, assistant professor at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Health, is quoted in the News from Brown publication:

“Our new analysis shows that it is far more dangerous to be pregnant than to have an abortion, and this gap in mortality risk is even larger than previously recognized.”

Study author Benjamin Brown piles on with this abortion is safer than pregnancy narrative:

“Our findings underscore how dangerous abortion bans are for pregnant people: forcing someone to continue a pregnancy puts them at a dramatically higher risk of death — along with so many other harms. The data also highlight the urgent need to lower mortality rates for all pregnant, birthing, and postpartum people.”

It’s worth noting from the Conflict-of-Interest Disclosure of the study that: “Brown reported serving on boards of directors for Physicians for Reproductive Health and The Womxn Project Education Fund and on the national medical committee for Planned Parenthood Federation of America.”

The study concludes:

“These findings suggest that by taking away the option to end a pregnancy, abortion bans force pregnant people to take on the substantially increased health risks associated with continued pregnancy.”

Some crucial factors are omitted in the researchers’ evidence for this outrageous statement.

Maternal deaths associated with childbirth in all 50 states are reported to and analyzed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). While the CDC does analyze deaths caused by legal induced abortion in the U.S., abortion reporting is voluntary – significantly skewing the results.

That’s an enormous difference in “results.”

Shouldn’t study authors point out that contributing data is not comparable when broadcasting such dramatic “findings?” A modicum of integrity would seem to dictate such.

David Reardon, director of the Elliot Institute, associate scholar with the Charlotte Lozier Institute, and researcher on the aftereffects of pregnancy loss on women, responded to the study’s purported results.

Reardon asked what the new evidence is that their analysis is based on.

It’s two statistics.

First, the number of maternal deaths associated with childbirth, “which are required to be reported and systematically investigated in all 50 states.”

Second, the number of deaths reported as due to abortion – “which are not systematically reported, much less routinely investigated, in any of the 50 states.”

So, remember, Reardon noted, that any number divided by zero is “infinitely high.”

“That means that the better the job abortion proponents do in ignoring, hiding or disguising abortion related deaths the ratio of maternal childbirth deaths to abortion deaths will continue to rise, even unto infinity,” he said. “So, a ratio of 44 to 70 childbirth to abortion deaths is just a good start. But no matter what number they choose to report, it is false.”

What’s exasperating is the widespread and unquestioning media coverage given to such abortion applauding passed off as research.

It’s not surprising that Planned Parenthood and other abortion profiteers broadcast content meant to give them a better image, but when health organizations and media, the former supposed to serve the public good and the latter supposed to be neutral, publish these misleading claims without citing important pertinent evidence, it demonstrates blatant hypocrisy and bias in favor of abortion.

The World Health Organization (WHO) published an article in recent years with this sensational headline: “A Woman Dies Every Two Minutes from Pregnancy or Childbirth.” Yet any mention on their site of risks from abortion is in reference to so-called “safe abortion.” The message implies that abortion is a positive as long as the instruments are clean and anesthesia is monitored.

A report last month from U.S. News & World Report on a like study similarly claims, “Anti-abortion laws are associated with more deaths among expecting and new mothers, a new study says.”

The Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine has this from last month as well:

“The increased number of state-level abortion restrictions in the U.S. was associated with a parallel increase in maternal deaths between 2005 and 2023, according to new research presented today at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) 2026 Pregnancy Meeting™.”

Still missing in all of this is the disclosure of the lack of significant comparable data between abortion and childbirth across the country.

Reardon commented on the study site with a well-sourced rebuttal and included his remarks at the Elliot Institute’s AfterAbortion.org site:

Steenland et al argue that abortion bans will increase mortality rates of women. The fundamental problem with this analysis is that it ignores the fact that there is no systematic process for identification and collection of abortion related deaths. Steenland is comparing a well-researched statistic, maternal deaths, with unreliably reported abortion deaths.

Studies show that only 1% of deaths following abortion will be identified without linkage of death certificates to abortion registries, which simply don’t exist in the USA.

Moreover, “abortion related deaths” are defined by the CDC as any “death from a direct complication of an [induced] abortion (legal or illegal), an indirect complication caused by a chain of events initiated by an abortion, or an aggravation of a preexisting condition by the physiologic or psychologic effects of abortion.” Therefore, any comparison of abortion-related deaths should include deaths from suicide, which are known to increase after abortion.

Steenland’s decision to include only deaths related to abortion deaths in the short-term also ignores strong evidence that abortion contributes to an increased risk of death from cardiovascular diseases and other causes.

For example, a population study in Quebec revealed that  a 50% increased risk of premature death (HR 1.50, 95% CI 1.39, 1.62) which persisted for approximately fifteen years—including elevated rates of death from suicide, sepsis | shock or organ failure, cardiovascular disease and renal diseases—even after controlling for age, material deprivation, rural residence, and pre-existing comorbidities including pre-existing mental illness, defined as any psychiatric disorder, substance use disorder, or suicide attempt occurring before or during the index pregnancy.  [emphasis added]

In short, Reardon concluded, “the best available evidence, from the best record-based studies shows that abortion is an independent risk factor for a 50% higher rate of death than for women who carry to term.”

“It is instead an example of why abortion proponents routinely oppose the laws and regulations necessary to provide for adequate surveillance of abortion related injuries,” he said. “Junk data makes it easier to pretend that abortion is safe.”

Why would academics disregard directly related data to make such extreme and arguably dangerous claims?

Conversely, Reardon offers research on the risk of premature death associated with abortion HERE.

Women deserve better than deceptive propaganda designed to frighten them out of pregnancy, a natural function of the body, into abortion, the intentional taking of a life.

LifeNews Note: Patty Knap is a certified pregnancy counselor, faith formation teacher, ABA therapist for autism, and freelance writer from Long Island. This originally appeared at Pregnancy Help News.

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