According to recent studies, the Dobbs ruling that officially ended the federal right to an abortion was accompanied by a sudden spike in child deaths.
Experts argue that this ripple effect of limitation on healthcare accounts for a significant increase in birth anomalies.
In the months following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to invalidate federal abortion rights through its ruling in Dobbs, hundreds of more newborn fatalities have been reported nationwide.
In one study recently published in JAMA Pediatrics, infant mortality was found to have increased by 7% in those months, with an estimated additional 247 infant deaths per month.
This shows that the overwhelming majority of them were from congenital anomalies, or birth defects, most of which could have been detected in pregnancies that could have resulted in an abortion.
Researchers say this rise is caused by a national “ripple effect” of abortion bans, even affecting states where less stringent measures are imposed.
Statement Lead author of the study, Dr Parvati Singh said, “The data reflects an ongoing crisis in the healthcare access for pregnant women and infants.
Bans have led to more and more women carrying pregnancies with lethal congenital anomalies to term and therefore account for higher mortality.”.
It is also important to know that experts had asserted that abortion bans right away exacerbate the more general risks of the babies and mothers, especially among vulnerable populations that experience structural barriers such as poverty and lack of prenatal care.
