In June 2022, the Supreme Court gave states back the possibility of legislating on the right to abortion. Since then, infant mortality has been increasing, according to a scientific study published this Monday.
It was a decision that aroused the anger of Democrats and women’s rights associations. In June 2022, the American Supreme Court, with a conservative majority, gave states the power to legislate on the right to abortion. Over the past two years, at least twenty states have restricted, at least partially, the rights to voluntarily terminate a pregnancy.
Among them, Texas: according to a study published last June, this state experienced a 12.9% increase in the infant mortality rate between 2021 and 2022, after the strictest restrictions on abortion came into force of the United States. According to a scientific study published this Monday, October 21, This resulted in an increase in infant mortality throughout the country, particularly due to congenital anomalies, in the months following this decision.
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Published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, this publication led by scientists at Ohio University explains that “infant mortality in the United States has been higher than we expected.”
In October 2022, March 2023 and April 2023, infant mortality rates were 7% higher than usual nationally, with 247 additional deaths for each of these months. The majority of these deaths were attributed to congenital anomalies.
“These are cases in which, before the Supreme Court’s decision, it would have been possible to abort rather than carry the pregnancy to term and have to witness the death of your child,” underlines Maria Gallo.
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This study is only a first step for scientists. From now on, they will seek to know if this increase was observed in all states or if it was concentrated in those which restricted abortion. “There is a broader human toll to consider, including the mental health consequences of being denied an abortion or being forced to carry a pregnancy to term when the fetus has a fatal birth defect,” adds Parvati Singh, one of the researchers who worked on this study.
Two weeks before the presidential election, Joe Biden wants to extend reimbursement for contraception by including those performed without a prescription. The theme of the right to abortion was one of the key subjects of this campaign between Kamala Harris, supporter of this right, and her Republican opponent Donald Trump, more discreet on the issue.
