Banning abortion causes more deaths
Numerous studies have confirmed over the decades that restrictions on the right to abortion do not reduce the number of abortions. Rather, they increase the risk of death during abortions.
According to a 2009 study, countries with the most restrictive laws reported a 34 times higher rate of abortion-related deaths. This translates, worldwide, into 68,000 deaths per year linked to abortions carried out in less safe conditions, and 5 million women who suffer from long-term complications. A fact that is however little raised by the movements that label themselves “pro-life “.
It goes even further, according to this same study by Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston: countries with the most restrictive abortion laws had higher abortion rates than countries with the least restrictive laws. One reason is that less restrictive laws are often accompanied by better access to birth control pills and better information and awareness campaigns.
In addition, it should be remembered that the risk of death during childbirth is higher than the risk of death during an abortion performed under safe conditions. In the United States, the most recent figures from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) show 0.41 deaths per 100,000 abortions, compared to 23.8 deaths per 100,000 births. However, this last figure varies considerably according to region and income: remember that health insurance is not universal in the United States. Thus, the maternal mortality rate at childbirth is almost three times higher among black women.
This last fact is also not often raised by the movements which nevertheless present themselves as “pro-life” in the United States. Just as they don't seem to have bothered in recent years that the United States had, among rich countries, one of the worst death rates among pregnant women, and one of the worst pre-natal care.
That's not to mention the impacts on the mother's mental health and future life in general. On this subject, a study by the University of California comparing mothers who had had access to an abortion with those who had been refused an abortion, concluded that there were impacts on both health and socioeconomic status. The work, called the Turnaway Study, consisted of a 5-year follow-up of 1,000 women across the United States. Since 2014, around fifty studies have been published thanks to these unpublished data: among other things, women who have not had access to an abortion are more at risk of being in a relationship with a violent partner, are 4 times more at risk of being in a household with an income below the poverty line, and are 3 times more likely to be unemployed.
