Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade case a little over two years ago – removing nation-wide protections on abortion access – infant deaths have increased by 7%, according to a new study.
“I’m not sure that people expected infant mortality rates to increase following [the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision]. It’s not necessarily what people were thinking about. But when you restrict access to health care it can cause a broader impact on public health than can be foreseen,” said Maria Gallo, a professor of epidemiology at Ohio State University and one of the researchers who conducted the study. It was published Monday in the JAMA Pediatrics journal.
This year, Audacy has also reported on increased use of the abortion medication mifepristone and on the increase of abortions since the Dobbs ruling. While abortion rates decreased between 2011 and 2019, they started to tick up again in the COVID-19 pandemic era. In January, the annual #WeCount report published by the Society for Family Planning found that the national monthly total of abortions exceeded 100,000 for the first time in the seven years.
These increases were recorded even after more than a dozen states enacted laws that severely limit access to abortions.
Researchers who conducted the study published this week found that 247 more infant deaths were reported monthly following the Dobbs decision. Their findings “mirror previous research analyzing the experience in Texas after a ban on abortions in early pregnancy and illuminate the consequences of restricting access to abortion care,” Gallo said.
According to Ohio State University, the highest rates of infant mortality observed since the Dobbs ruling were among those born with genetic abnormalities. Parvati Singh, an assistant professor of epidemiology who also worked on the study said there was a 10% increase in infant mortality among this cohort.
To conduct the study, Gallo and Singh studied national birth outcomes from 2018 through 2023. They observed additional deaths beginning with babies born to people who became pregnant in the first part of 2022. Singh said that birth outcomes are typically pretty stable.
“This study doesn’t reflect variations from state to state, but the researchers said they would expect the impact to be more pronounced in states with more restrictive abortion laws,” said Ohio State University.
According to Singh, it isn’t yet clear if the increase in infant mortality will continue.
“That’s an open question,” she said. “It could be that, yes, it will because (abortion care) access is shut down in some states. But it also could be that eventually more state policymakers are seeing that this isn’t what people in the state want and more will pass constitutional amendments to protect access.”
In the future, the researchers plan to look at infant mortality based on different populations, including those who struggle when care is more limited, Ohio State said.
“There’s a broader human toll to consider, including mental health consequences of being denied abortion care or being forced to carry a fetus with a fatal genetic abnormality to term,” Singh added.
Reactions to the Dobbs decision in the U.S. have been mostly negative. Pew Research Center data from this May showed that 63% of the population believes abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
Polling data released by Newsweek this Tuesday indicated that “abortion has overtaken immigration to become the second most important issue for voters heading into the 2024 election,” between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. During his single term in the White House, Trump appointed three of the six conservative-leaning justices who agreed on the Dobbs decision, and he has praised the move.