After Roe v. Wade was overturned, pro-choice advocates argued that banning abortion at the state level would only lead to illegal, unsafe, “back alley” abortions. They contended that women would be denied healthcare when experiencing miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies and falsely concluded that banning abortions would kill women and increase maternal mortality rates. Those arguments were categorically disproven by data recently released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
 
As states banned abortion, maternal mortality rates declined. That is no coincidence. Banning abortion saves the lives of both mothers and their unborn babies.
 
In 2023, the US maternal mortality rate decreased to 18.6 deaths per 100,000 live births, compared to 22.3 in 2022, according to a report from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. In 2023, after 20 states banned abortion in the first full year post-Roe, 669 women died of maternal causes. In 2022, 817 women died of maternal causes, an almost 20% reduction.
 
This confirms that childbirth is safer and better for women than abortion. In fact, studies show that women are three times more likely to die following abortions than from natural childbirth.
 
Dr. Monique Chireau Wubbenhorst, a senior research associate at the DeNicola Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame and a board-certified OB-GYN, shared with a US Senate committee that nations with strong pro-life laws have some of the lowest maternal mortality rates in the world.
 
“Countries with highly restrictive [abortion] laws at present or in the past (such as Chile, Malta and Ireland) have or have had extremely low rates of maternal mortality. In addition, African American women have the highest rates of abortion, and also the highest maternal mortality. Both cannot be true if abortion decreases maternal mortality,” she shared at the hearing.
 
In another testimony before Congress, Wubbenhorst shared that “For several years consecutively, Ireland had zero maternal mortality at a time when abortion was completely illegal.”
 
The risks associated with both surgical and chemical abortions are well-documented. Surgical risks include, but are not limited to: hemorrhaging, infection, cervix laceration, and uterus perforation. If any of these complications occur, it can expose women to additional risks associated with the procedures used to mitigate damage, such as blood transfusions needed after hemorrhaging, which risks hepatitis. Abortion can increase a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer and can increase the likelihood of ectopic pregnancies in the future.
 
While not all of these complications are fatal, many can have life-long health consequences – not to mention the emotional trauma of undergoing such a violent procedure. Studies show that some women even develop Post Abortion Syndrome (PAS), which has been likened to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Another study showed that women are 81% more likely to experience mental health issues, either short-term or long-term, after an abortion.
 
There are perhaps even more risks associated with chemical abortion, partly because they are self-administered by taking a pill regimen at home, rather than in a hospital setting where adverse events can be quickly addressed.
 
“RU-486, otherwise known as mifepristone, has an FDA warning for causing drug toxicity/overdose, ruptured ectopic tubes, hemorrhage, and more,” Liberty Counsel explained. “From February 2019 to September 2020 alone, the drug killed 3,197 women. Among the other thousands of adverse injuries reported during the same period, 2/3 of women who did not die of RU-486’s adverse events required surgery to save their life and future fertility.”
 
With these statistics in mind, it’s not hard to understand how banning abortion leads to a decrease in maternal mortality rates. Abortion endangers and kills women. The compassionate approach is the pro-life position. Women (and their unborn children) are better off in a culture where abortion is unthinkable.