Globe Newswire
reports on a newly released study which underlines the fact that Ireland
without abortion has one of the lowest maternal mortality levels in the world
being about half of that in England and Wales.
Comparing
national health data over a period of 40 years shows better maternal and
neonatal outcomes in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, where
abortion is illegal or highly restricted, than in Great Britain, where abortion
has been legal since 1968, according to an article in the summer issue of the Journal
of American Physicians and Surgeons.
Researchers Byron
C. Calhoun, M.D., of West Virginia University-Charleston, John M. Thorp, M.D.,
of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Patrick Carroll, M.A.,
of Britain's Pension and Population Research Institute (PAPRI) examined
maternal mortality, stillbirth rates, and preterm births.
Irish women can
travel overseas to Great Britain or the continent to obtain abortions, but
Irish abortion rates continue to be low. The authors calculate total abortion
rates (TARs), analogous to total fertility rates (TFRs), of 0.13 for the
Republic and 0.09 for Northern Ireland in 2011, compared with 0.52 for England
and Wales, 0.36 for Scotland, and 0.6 for Sweden. About one-third of English
women are likely to experience an abortion, compared with less than one-tenth
of Irish women, they state.
Since 1968,
maternal mortality has declined much more steeply in Ireland than in Great
Britain. In the last decade, the article reports maternal mortality of 3 per
100,000 in the Republic of Ireland compared with 6 per 100,000 in England and
Wales.
A history of
prior induced abortion is associated with preterm birth and low birth weight,
which are in turn associated with a higher rate of cerebral palsy. The authors
find that these indicators of neonatal health are also more favorable in the
Irish jurisdictions.
"Over the 40
years of legalized abortion in the UK there has been a consistent pattern in
which higher abortion rates have run parallel to higher incidence of stillbirths,
premature births, low birth-weight neonates, cerebral palsy, and maternal
deaths," the authors conclude. "In contrast, both Irish jurisdictions
consistently display lower rates of all morbidities and mortality associated
with legalized abortion."
"Women,
women's health policy advocates, and national health systems ought to take
careful note," they state.
The Journal is an
official publication of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons
(AAPS), a national organization representing physicians in all specialties,
which was founded in 1943.
Byron Calhoun,
M.D., or
Jane M. Orient,
M.D., (520) 323-3110,
