Although it is widely understood that being pregnant is more dangerous than having an abortion, a new study led by Maria Steenland, assistant professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Maryland, has found that the risk of maternal death from pregnancy has been significantly underestimated.
Prior to this study, a commonly cited statistic was that the risk of death associated with childbirth (including during pregnancy and within one-year postpartum) is 14 times higher than that of abortion. This estimation was based on data from 1998 to 2005, which found maternal mortality rates in the United States to be between 8.8 and 14.5 per 100,000 live births.
However, Dr. Steenland and her co-authors found very different results. Using National Vital Statistics System and Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System data from 2018 to 2021, the authors found an annual average of 32.2 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, with the highest rate of 43.9 occurring in 2021. According to their analysis, the mortality risk from pregnancy is 44 to 70 times higher than the mortality risk from abortion.
“Evidence indicates that the [Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization] decision [that overturned Roe v. Wade] was associated with an increase in births in states with abortion bans, suggesting that bans have forced some people to remain pregnant who would have otherwise sought abortion care,” the authors conclude. “In the post-Dobbs environment, such individuals face a substantially greater mortality risk because they remain pregnant despite initially planning for an abortion.”
In addition to Dr. Steenland, the research team included other scholars from the University of Maryland and Brown University.