Abortion May Increase Mortality Rate

ATTENTION: National Desk, Science & Health Editors
Embargo until 6 a.m, 8/28/02

New Study Shows Women's Death Rate Following Abortion Much Higher than Previously Known

Springfield, IL - A study published in the latest issue of the Southern Medical Journal reveals that women who have abortions are at significantly higher risk of death than women who give birth. This finding contradicts the widely accepted opinion that abortion is safer than childbirth.

Researchers examined death records linked to Medi-Cal payments for births and abortions for approximately 173,000 low income Californian women. They discovered that women who had abortions were almost twice as likely to die in the following two years and that the elevated mortality rate of aborting women persisted over at least eight years.

During the eight year period studied, women who aborted had a 154 percent higher risk of death from suicide, an 82 percent higher risk of death from accidents, and a 44 percent higher risk of death from natural causes.

This is the second major record-based study to link abortion to elevated mortality rates. In 1997, a study of women in Finland sent a tremor of worry through family planning agencies when it revealed that in the first year following an abortion, aborting women were 252 percent more likely to die compared to women who delivered and 76 percent more likely to die compared to women who had not been pregnant.

This new study confirms the trend found in Finland. It is also the first American study to use a uniform and objective standard for associating deaths with prior abortions and births. Critics of abortion have long complained about the inaccuracies of abortion mortality figures. There are no federal or state regulations requiring the reporting of abortion complications. Indeed, the international standard for identifying cause of death does not even provide a means for identifying surgical abortion as a cause of death.

Another recently published Elliot Institute study using the California data reveals that aborting women also seek more subsequent mental health care.

A third Elliot Institute study, published last January in the British Medical Journal, reveals that subsequent long-term clinical depression is more common among those women who have had abortions. Depression can weaken the immune system and reduce overall health.

Contact Elliot Institute: (217) 525-8202