Friday, August 31, 2012

New study shows repeat abortions lead to premature births


A new Finnish study, published in the journal Human Reproduction, has confirmed that abortion causes prematurity in subsequent births.  Pro-abortion organizations have consistently denied this despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary because they know that it weakens their position. This study found that the more abortions a woman has before her first child, the more likely she is to give birth prematurely. See BBC News report

Data from all 300,858 first-time mothers in Finland between 1996 and 2008 was analysed for the purpose of the study, which shows that women were three times more likely to have a very premature baby, born before 28 weeks, if they had had three or more abortions.

Being born too soon is linked to higher risks of infection, hypothermia and death.

Repeat abortions
The study showed there would be three babies born before 28 weeks for every 1,000 women who had never had an abortion, four per 1,000 who had had one abortion, six in those who had had two abortions and 11 if the woman had had three or more abortions.

There were similar figures for babies born before 37 weeks and for low birth weight. However, only 0.3% of women in the study had had three or more abortions before their first child.

Statistics for England and Wales show the number of women having multiple abortions is rising.

Andrew Whitelaw, a professor of neo-natal medicine at the University of Bristol, said: "While pre-term birth before 37 weeks' gestation exposes an infant to a modest but definite increased risk of a range of serious problems including brain injury and death, birth before 28 weeks exposes the infant to a hugely increased risk of death, brain injury and permanent disability.

"Thus an increase, after three or more abortions, of nearly threefold in the odds of having an infant born before 28 weeks is worrying.

"The steadily increasing survival of very pre-term infants should not be interpreted as a solution to the problem of pre-term birth. Increased survival of infants under 28 weeks is at the cost of increased survival of infants with disability."

Comment:
There are now over 50 studies that have found that previous induced abortions increase preterm birth risk e.g an Australian study (Lumley, J. The association between prior spontaneous abortion, prior induced abortion and preterm birth in first singleton births. Prenat Neonat Med 1998 3: 21-24) which had a data base of 250,000 births showed a 60% increase in extreme premature birth after one abortion, a 150% increase after two abortions, a 460% increase after three abortions and a staggering 800% increase after 4 or more abortions.