New meta-study confirms link between abortion and preterm births

A new study appearing in the latest issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology finds that abortion comes with a “significantly higher risk” of premature births in future pregnancies.

The study, a meta-analysis of 36 international studies and over a million women, finds a 52 percent increase in the risk, as well as heightened possibility of lower gestational and birth weights.

“In May 2016 abortion-preemie denial became impossible,” says Brent Rooney of British Columbia’s Reduce Preterm Risk Coalition, noting this was actually the fourth meta-analysis “validating higher risk of premature delivery of babies for women with induced abortion history.”

Further, the latest study was not conducted by scientists with an ideological agenda against abortion. The researchers, led by Dr. Gabrielle Saccade, conclude simply that women seeking abortions should be better informed of alternatives (something with which Planned Parenthood, which discourages adoption, disagrees).

Many previous studies from recent years have also found that abortion increases the odds of future preterm births. For example, a 2013 study by McGill University Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology (Montreal) found “women who had one prior induced abortion were 45 percent more likely to have premature births by 32 weeks, 71 percent more likely to have premature births by 28 weeks, and 117 percent more likely to have premature births by 26 weeks.”