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.
Make abortion more difficult and more potentially non-viable babies will be born. Seems logical.
Before all this there were c. 600k abortions a year. So, how many of those potentially viable now get born and are viable? That is the benefit side of that cost above, no?
To do that we’d need to look at numbers by state of course, as some have had, since Dobbs, highly restrictive lawes and others have carried merrily on. But then if we were to nail down hte effect on the unviable we’d need to do it state by state as well and they don’t. Odd that.
’ That is the benefit side of that cost above, no?’
Not sure babies who will never grow up to be normal healthy individuals can be counted as a benefit…
But probably thousands fewer than would have if abortions continues.
One naturally wonders how many ‘non-viables’ would have been deemed viable if the mother (parents??) had wanted them.
One assumes anyway that it’s something the states’d rather not have bought to their attention.
The only time the Guardian shows any interest in excess deaths statistics is when they’re crying for more baby murder.
Hmm.
Julia – Not sure babies who will never grow up to be normal healthy individuals can be counted as a benefit…
I have a cousin with Down Syndrome and he’s a great lad. Doctors said he wouldn’t live past 30, and they were wrong. Not his fault he’s retarded, I’m glad his Mum didn’t kill him in utero.
Having all the right chromosomes doesn’t guarantee normal or healthy, unforts.
“Odd that.” The oddity of the oddness is indeed highly odd. How to explain it?
I dislike abortion though I certainly wouldn’t ban it. But, by God, I loathe the enthusiasm and dishonesty of the American abortion advocates. Is any other country host to such a vile mob?
That is the benefit side of that cost above, no?’
Or the cost side of that benefit? Depends which side you are of the debate you are, doesn’t it?
I’m in favour of the striking down of Roe Wade (not saying it’s anything to do with me because I’m not USian) because it brings the legality issue closer to the people who’re effected by it. In principal, always a better thing. An increase in democracy.
And now, across the 50 states, it will be revealed what the results of the various views on legality are. An experiment should have been undertaken years ago. Then maybe we’ll get some facts rather than opinions.. Maybe people will have different opinions confronted with the facts? It’s a hope.
But one person’s benefit is going to be another’s cost, isn’t it? I’ve seen far too many women who’ve had children they neither needed nor wanted. It’s why they’ve ended up doing what they’re doing. That’s one of the results. Tens of thousands of women travelling half way around the world to rent what they’re sitting on to put food in the mouths of children would otherwise go hungry. And no doubt you’ll get exactly the same result internally in the US.
But, by God, I loathe the enthusiasm and dishonesty of the American abortion advocates.
How much opinion gets formed by the efforts of the usual middle class, university educated, often publicly funded intellectuals?
I’m suspicious of almost any statistics that relate to something that is political, but assuming it’s true that the changes in State laws have significantly reduced the number of abortions in the U.S., I’m a bit puzzled.
When Roe v Wade was overturned, we were warned of horrors, women using coat hangers on themselves, suicides, etc.
But plenty of states have unrestricted access and many (most?) abortions can be accomplished with pills that are easy to transport.
So, women are desperate enough to coat hanger themselves in a back alley, but not travel a few hundred miles?
Not trolling here, just wondering if the decision for a meaningful number of women is close enough to a coin toss that they won’t bother if the abortion center isn’t in their own neighborhood?
“If I can’t get rid of this fetus my life will be ruined”
“We’ll have to drive 300 miles to another state”
“Never mind”
Estaban @ 9.56, unfortunately there are people who wish to remove that particular option:
https://theconversation.com/crossing-state-lines-to-get-an-abortion-is-a-new-legal-minefield-with-courts-to-decide-if-theres-a-right-to-travel-238167.
Some on here, who cite the ‘slippery slope’ regarding other topics, seem to ignore that those against abortion will not stop until it is banned totally.
Some on here, who cite the ‘slippery slope’ regarding other topics, seem to ignore that those against abortion will not stop until it is banned totally.
It should be banned totally.
You heard from the pulpit. Steve wants people to lead the lives Steve wants, irrespective of their own wishes. No doubt on the advice of his deity. Which moonlights as The Great Destroyer of Unbelievers! (coming to a Crusade or witch burning near you soon)
The difference to the middle class, university educated, largely public funded intellectual is undetectable.
If you carefully at Christianity, the differences from Islam are virtually undetectable. Apart from Christianity’s been around for 700 years longer, so has learnt to change its tactics.
Where was Christianity 800 years ago? The Catholic abbot of Citeaux standing at the gates of the besieged city of Béziers (pop 20,000, mostly Catholics) crying “Kill them all, for the Lord knoweth them that are His”
As late as the C18th, a significant source of slaves for the Arab slave traders was Christian Europeans selling their fellow Europeans into slavery.
Addolff,
You’re just not going to stop it. You’re a 17 year old guy and you get your girlfriend knocked up and you both agree you don’t want it, you’re going to do it. The risks of getting caught are almost zero. “No, we just went for a nice trip to New Mexico” and “unfortunately, Louanne miscarried”. Unless someone is dumb enough to admit it, you’re never going to prosecute.
BiS – Steve wants people to lead the lives Steve wants, irrespective of their own wishes. No doubt on the advice of his deity.
Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven.
Where was Christianity 800 years ago? The Catholic abbot of Citeaux standing at the gates of the besieged city of Béziers (pop 20,000, mostly Catholics) crying “Kill them all, for the Lord knoweth them that are His”
Based.
If you carefully at Christianity, the differences from Islam are virtually undetectable
They are if you’re proudly ignorant.
BIS,
All religions morph to the society they are in. We didn’t become an advanced, civilised, liberal society because of Christianity. People innovated and we became that, and the Church hated it, fought against it, and had to be dragged kicking and screaming to the future as their power declined.
Old Christianity is a lot like Islam in the petrol states of Arabia today, because both are land-based economies. You have tribes, and you get richer by your tribe kicking the shit out of the neighbour and taking their land. Saudi Arabia and Iraq are 95% about oil. So you get a society based on that and religion based on that. Turkey and Egypt are Islamic, but it’s different because the societies are different. More about industry, co-operation, individualism.
I mean, you always have to be wary of people saying they’re Christian, Muslim, Jews whatever. A lot of it is just cultural, for show. All the girls at church were putting out, even though fornication is a sin.
The biggest religion in the UK right now is green doomsterism. It has a saint seeing things (Greta), it has its own versions of armageddon, pointless rituals (separating your recycling). David Attenborough is like the Archbishop.
WB – We didn’t become an advanced, civilised, liberal society because of Christianity. People innovated and we became that
Not coincidentally, our advanced, civilised*, liberal** society is dying in real time and being physically replaced with more religious African and Asians.
Christendom secured Europe for centuries. Atheism has brought us lower than we were before Charles Martel.
*Unless you’re an unborn child
**Unless you’re a white British person who speaks out against your own displacement
our advanced, civilised*, liberal** society is dying in real time and being physically replaced with more religious African and Asians.
Being being lead down that road by his Holiness & Utter Cvnishness the Archbish de Canterbury.
BiS – Yarp?
The Church of England hierarchy hasn’t believed in God for nearly a century.
St Thomas More, St John Ogilvie, pray for us.
Surely banning inter-state trade is against the constitutional clause forbidding the banning of inter-state trade.
@jgh Wasn’t the Roe Wade decision based on the constitutional matter of interstate trade?
Steve @ 10.41, such a shame, you do not believe in freedom, you want to be King.