The CDC Hasn’t Asked States to Track Deaths Linked to Abortion Bans

The Biden administration hasn’t delivered on its goals of measuring the public health impact of abortion bans. Experts say it’s a missed opportunity to study how the laws may lead to deaths and long-term injuries.

by Kavitha Surana, Robin Fields and Ziva Branstetter
Dec. 20, 2024

After the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion in 2022, President Joe Biden issued an executive order tasking the federal government with assessing the “devastating implications for women’s health“ of new state abortion bans.

Experts were warning that these bans would interfere with critical medical care and lead to preventable deaths. And the states that passed the laws had little incentive to track their consequences.

Continued: https://www.propublica.org/article/abortion-ban-deaths-cdc-maternal-health-care

Births have increased in states with abortion bans, research finds

By Deidre McPhillips, CNN
Tue November 21, 2023

Nearly a quarter of people seeking an abortion in the United States were unable to get one due to bans that took effect after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, researchers estimate. In the first half of 2023, states with abortion bans had an average fertility rate that was 2.3% higher than states where abortion was not restricted, according to the analysis – leading to about 32,000 more births than expected.

The findings are based on preliminary births data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The research has not yet been peer-reviewed but experts say the data paints a clear picture about the direct impact of abortion restrictions.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/21/health/abortion-bans-increase-births/index.html

21.11.2023

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a professor at the University of California

Alison Gemmill

Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health

Centers for Disease Control

USA – Why accurate data on abortions matters — and why it’s so hard to collect

Jasmine Mithani
February 27, 2023

Collecting abortion data has always been difficult: People are often unwilling to share their experiences with researchers, and the United States has no centralized count of abortions performed. Every state collects data differently, and some refuse to share it with federal researchers due to privacy concerns. Sometimes researchers have to estimate abortion incidence based on historical trends because up-to-date data isn’t available.

It’s a challenge with broad implications for information on reproductive health, one that has been compounded by the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which allowed states to ban abortion. Less accurate abortion data means less information to share with policymakers about the impacts of restrictions — but also spills over into many areas of public health.

Continued: https://19thnews.org/2023/02/abortion-data-rates-after-dobbs/

USA – Anti-Choice Activists Say Abortion Isn’t ‘Essential,’ but Clinic Protests Are

Anti-Choice Activists Say Abortion Isn’t ‘Essential,’ but Clinic Protests Are
While the rest of us stay at home, anti-choice protesters will keep performing their "vital service" outside abortion clinics during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Mar 31, 2020
Jessica Mason Pieklo

More than 200 million people in the United States have been ordered to stay at home by state and local officials desperate to slow the spread of COVID-19 in their communities.

Governors and public health officials have asked businesses not deemed “essential” to temporarily close for the same reason.

Continued: https://rewire.news/article/2020/03/31/anti-choice-activists-say-abortion-isnt-essential-but-clinic-protests-are/

US abortion rate is lowest in nine years, new data shows

US abortion rate is lowest in nine years, new data shows
CDC examined abortion rate from 2007 to 2016 and found abortions dropped 26% over the period of the study

Jessica Glenza in New York
Wed 27 Nov 2019

Fewer women in the US are having abortions than at any time in the last nine years, new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC collects data on abortions by contacting the central health agency for 48 states. The study excludes California, one of the most populous states in the nation. This study examined the abortion rate from 2007 to 2016.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/27/us-abortion-rate-drops-data-shows

27.11.2019

Centers for Disease Control

Birthrates in the U.S. are falling. Abortions have also hit an all-time low

Birthrates in the U.S. are falling. Abortions have also hit an all-time low.

By Marisa Iati
November 27, 2019

Rates of births and abortions in the United States again declined in the most recent years for which data is available, as women experience fewer pregnancies, according to analyses released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The birthrate reached its lowest point in more than three decades, with 3,791,712 births registered in 2018. That total is 2 percent below the number reported in 2017, marking the fourth year in a row that births have declined.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2019/11/27/birthrates-us-are-falling-abortions-have-also-hit-an-all-time-low/

27.11.2019

Centers for Disease Control

Why a NY woman came to Colorado for a 32-week abortion

Why a NY woman came to Colorado for a 32-week abortion
Forty-three states place some restrictions on abortions after a certain point in pregnancy, but Colorado isn’t one of them

By Anna Staver, The Denver Post
PUBLISHED: October 13, 2019

In the spring of 2016, Erika Christensen and her husband walked past a tall, wooden fence that obscured the Boulder office of Dr. Warren Hern from the street and into his waiting room.

Printed signs taped to bulletproof glass told her all electronic devices — even cellphones — were prohibited and asked her to tell someone on staff if she needed to leave for any reason. The only items she could carry through the door were a printed book, her identification card and a check for $10,000.

Continued: https://www.denverpost.com/2019/10/13/late-abortion-women-2020/

What explains Donald Trump’s war on late-term abortions?

What explains Donald Trump’s war on late-term abortions?
Attacks on the rare but controversial procedures are designed to please more than evangelicals

Aug 22nd 2019

WHILE LEROY CARHART, a doctor who specialises in late-term abortions, was finishing his most recent termination, the manager of his clinic in Bethesda, Maryland, outlined the procedure. Abortions in the second half of pregnancy take between two and four days, said Christine Spiegoski, a nurse wearing a T-shirt that read: “Don’t like abortion? Prevent pregnancy by f**king yourself!” First, the doctor injects potassium chloride or digoxin into the fetus’s heart, killing it within minutes. If he is unable to reach the heart and instead pumps the drug into the amniotic sac, death can take up to 24 hours. Dr Carhart euthanises the fetus at the beginning of the procedure because its tissue and skull then soften and contract, easing removal. At 25 weeks a fetus weighs around a pound and a half and is over a foot long; some of those Dr Carhart aborts are older.

Continued: https://www.economist.com/united-states/2019/08/22/what-explains-donald-trumps-war-on-late-term-abortions

Born Alive Abortion Survivors: Parsing Fact from Fiction

Born Alive Abortion Survivors: Parsing Fact from Fiction

March 11, 2019
by Libby Anne

Last week, a friend sent me an article bearing the headline They Are Real: Meet Born-Alive Abortion Survivors. Could I maybe blog about it, she asked? This article led me down to a rabbit hole with numbers that kept getting bigger. When I reached an article that argued that there are 44,000 abortion survivors living in the U.S. today, I knew we had a definitional problem. What is really going on here?

The article my friend sent me profiled five individuals it labeled “abortion survivors.” These individuals are real people. The first one profiled Gianna Jesson, whose mother had a saline abortion at 30 weeks in 1977, and Gianna survived. When she was born alive, she was provided with care and given up for adoption. Melissa Ohden’s biological mother had a saline abortion at 31 weeks in 1977; she, too, survived and was provided care.

Continued: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2019/03/born-alive-abortion-survivors-parsing-fact-from-fiction.html

U.S.: Zika poses even greater risk for birth defects than was previously known, CDC reports

Zika poses even greater risk for birth defects than was previously known, CDC reports
By Lena H. Sun
April 4, 2017

About 1 in 10 pregnant women infected with Zika in the United States last year had a baby or fetus with serious birth defects, according to a study released Tuesday that represents the largest and most comprehensive study of Zika’s consequences for pregnant women.

Women infected during the first trimester of pregnancy had an even higher risk of birth defects, about 15 percent, according to the analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Continued at source: Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/04/04/zika-poses-even-greater-risk-for-birth-defects-than-was-previously-known-cdc-reports/?wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1

04.04.2017