May 17, 2005
Paris, France (LifeNews.com) -- A new study in France shows that an
induced abortion can increase the risk by premature birth in subsequent
pregnancies by as much as 70 percent. That's because the abortions can
damage the lining of the uterus, where unborn children grow and developed.
The
study was based on medical notes and interviews of 2837 French women who
had a premature birth during 1997, which represents about one-third of the
total number of premature births that year.
Those who gave birth between 28 and 32 weeks of pregnancy were 40 percent
more likely to have had an abortion compared with mothers who gave birth
within two weeks of the expected due date.
Mothers who gave birth to babies from 22 to 27 weeks into the pregnancy
were 70 percent more likely to have had an abortion.
Caroline Moreau, of France's National Institute of Health and Medical
Research, told The Age newspaper that low level infections introduced due
to the abortion may come back in a subsequent pregnancy.
She
also indicated the cervix may not seal off the uterus completely following
an abortion. That would allow bacteria to enter the uterus, causing
infections.
During a pregnancy, the cervix is normally rigid and closed, but, in order
to perform an abortion, the cervix must be stretched open considerably.
While the cervix is forcibly dilated, the cervix muscles can be torn and
occasionally ripped off the uterine wall.
In
fact, the Elliot Institute, a post-abortion research organization, points
to one hospital study showing 12.5% of first trimester abortions required
stitching for cervical lacerations while another study of women in Hawaii
found that cervical lacerations occurred on 22 percent of the women who
had abortions.
Moreau also said surgical instruments during an abortion could damage the
lining of the uterus, making it less effective and affecting the
development of the baby in a later pregnancy.
Dr.
Judith Lumley, the director of Mother and Child Health Research at La
Trobe University, said Dr. Moreau's study was an extension of one she did
in 1999. Lumley said Moreau's conclusions about the link between abortion
and premature birth were the same as her own.
Dr.
Lumley's study examined women in Melbourne, Australia and she found that
the risk of premature birth was higher both with an abortion and a
miscarriage.
A
previous article in the summer issue of Journal of American Physicians and
Surgeons, authors Brent Rooney and Dr. Byron Calhoun present an
overwhelming case that prior induced abortions boost a woman's risk of a
preterm delivery.
They
point to 49 studies which have demonstrated a statistically significant
increase in premature births or low birth weight risk in women with prior
induced abortions.
"Large studies have reported a doubling of early premature birth risk from
two prior induced abortions. Women who had four or more induced abortions
experienced, on average, nine times the risk of low birth weight, an
increase of 800 percent," they write.
"These results suggest that women contemplating induced abortion should be
informed of this potential risk to subsequent pregnancies, and that
physicians should be aware of the potential liability and possible need
for intensified prenatal care," they concluded.
The
new study was published last month in the British Journal of Obstetrics
and Gynecology.
