Study finds infant mortality increases in US states with abortion bans
Infant mortality rates have increased in US states that have passed abortion bans, a study has found.
Researchers estimate there were 478 infant deaths in the 14 states that have outright bans or severe restrictions - which they say would not have happened if the laws were not in place.
The increase comes after the US Supreme Court overturned a decision in 2022 that made abortion up to fetal viability a national right, allowing individual states to decide whether to allow the procedure.
Alison Gemmill, co-lead author of the study, said that "restrictive abortion policies" could "undo decades of progress" in reducing infant deaths across the US.
The study, published this week by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, found an increase in mortality rates for babies born with congenital problems, as well as among groups where death rates were already higher than average.
This included black babies, as well as babies whose parents were unmarried, younger, did not attend college and those who lived in southern states, the BBC reports.
As of January 2025, 17 states have outlawed almost all abortions, although some have narrow exceptions for cases of rape, incest, or the mother's health.
States with some form of total abortion ban are Idaho, Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia.
Florida, Georgia, Iowa and South Carolina prohibit the procedure beyond six weeks of pregnancy.
Meanwhile, there are bans in Nebraska and North Carolina on procedures after 12 weeks, while in Utah it is 18 weeks.
Sarah Corning, a staff attorney at the civil rights organization, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in Texas, told the BBC that doctors and abortion care experts had warned that infant mortality would increase in these states after banning or restricting access to abortion.
She said OBGYNs were leaving Texas "because laws prevent them from adequately treating their patients, and as a result, Texans and their babies suffer."
