A group of pro-life medical professionals is challenging the claim that maternal mortality will worsen as a result of pro-life laws restricting abortion.
“Intentional feticide is never necessary to save a mother’s life,” Dr. Christina Francis, the CEO of the American Association of Pro-life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG), told Our Sunday Visitor of abortion.
“This fact is demonstrated daily by the more than 90% of OB/GYNs across the country who provide pregnant women with excellent and life-saving healthcare without induced abortion,” she added, “as well as by pro-life countries like Malta and Poland, which have some of the world’s best maternal health.”
In a recent press release, the group condemned media reports warning that state restrictions or bans on abortion pose an increased risk to mothers’ lives.
“The baseless narrative that the U.S.’s poor maternal health is attributable to abortion regulations only serves to harm women,” AAPLOG emphasized.
“Several weeks ago, we responded to these claims by abortion advocates on social media, refuting them and calling attention to the factors that actually contribute to the maternal mortality crisis in this country,” the group added, linking to a Twitter thread from March. “Yet this narrative attempting to connect the 2021 surge in maternal deaths to the Dobbs decision persists.”
Maternal mortality rate
AAPLOG’s comments followed a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report released in March finding that 1,205 women died of maternal causes in 2021. The worrisome number represented a nearly 40% increase from 2020, a year with 861 maternal deaths.
The CDC relies on the World Health Organization’s definition of a maternal death as “the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy … from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management, but not from accidental or incidental causes.”
The report, which drew from data by the National Vital Statistics System, found that the U.S. maternal mortality rate rose to 32.9 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2021.
The CDC numbers look at the year before the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case that overturned Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide in 1973. The 2022 decision freed states to decide abortion policy.
AAPLOG highlighted that the CDC’s provisional maternal death counts showed a decline in maternal deaths following the Dobbs decision.
“Research from diverse countries around the world has repeatedly shown that abortion laws do not worsen maternal mortality,” the statement read. “Malta and Poland, two countries with robust pro-life laws, have some of the lowest maternal mortality rates in the world.”
Malta and Poland, two countries that prohibit abortion except in very limited circumstances, boast low maternal mortality rates. According to modeled estimates made available by the World Bank for the year 2020, Poland stood at two maternal deaths per 100,000 live births and Malta at three.
For the U.S. that same year, two years before the overturning of Roe, the CDC reported a maternal mortality rate of 23.8 deaths per 100,000 live births.
Seeking solutions
Dr. Francis also shared her response to reports finding that states with pro-life protections restricting abortion have higher maternal mortality rates.
“This nation’s maternal mortality rates are tragic and desperately require solutions,” she began. “However, induced abortion is not the answer.”
“Studies reveal several factors that contribute to maternal mortality: socioeconomic inequality, poor access to quality healthcare, lack of hospital protocols for managing pregnancy complications, and more,” she added.
Studies also show that pro-life legislation does not increase maternal mortality rates, Dr. Francis said.
“Laws protecting women and children from induced abortion do not worsen maternal mortality rates, as evidenced by studies from several nations around the world,” she said. “In fact, one study from Mexico showed that states with more pro-life laws have better maternal outcomes than those with fewer abortion regulations.”
In the press statement, AAPLOG called for a meaningful conversation about women’s health.
“An honest discussion on improving health outcomes for American mothers is sorely needed and will include topics such as access to actual maternal healthcare (and not induced abortion), socioeconomic inequality, extended coverage of health insurance to one year postpartum and quality institutional protocols for management of common pregnancy complications,” it read.
“Promoting the intentional killing of embryonic or fetal human beings will do nothing to help their mothers thrive,” the group said of abortion. “The false narrative that it does harms the women they purport to care about. It serves a political agenda — not women and girls. Our patients deserve better.”
