Abortion: Maternal Death Rate
By PDG Posted in User Blogs — Comments (8) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
The maternal mortality is defined in this analysis as death by any reason within 12 months following a ending of a pregnancy. Due to privacy laws this analysis cannot occur in the United States. The data chosen from Finland. Finland is a state with liberal abortion laws and with socialized medicine. Their socialized medical records are stored in central databases for analysis by STAKES the Finnish equivalent of the CDC. The age adjusted death rate of non-pregnant women is included in the study for comparison. The study is large (9184 maternal deaths) over the period seven years.
Data is always subject to statistical variation from year to year, country to country, study to study. For this reason, the researchers also reported what is known as "95 percent confidence intervals." This means that the available data indicates that 95 percent of all similar studies would report a finding within a specified range around the actual reported figure. For example, the .50 odds ratio for childbirth has a confidence interval of .32 to .78. In other words, it is probable that 95 percent of the time, the odds ratio of death following childbirth will be found to be between 32 percent and 78 percent of the non-pregnant woman rate. The 95 percent confidence interval for the odds ratio of death following abortion was reported to be 1.27 to 2.42 of the annual rate for non-pregnant women. With a 95% confidence, it can be stated that abortion maternal mortality is higher than both birth or miscarriage.
Women who had an abortion were were more likey to die than any other group, the majority of these deaths resulted from violence. Interestingly not pregnant women were more likely to die than women of conveived and gave birth or who had a miscarrage. A normaized rate of 1.0 equals the death rate of non-pregnant women. Women who had an abortion 12 months prior to death are the 3.52 times more likely to die and those who gave birth were least likely to die.
Due to the commercial production of penicillin and sulfa drugs following WW2 and other medical advances, maternal deaths from all abortions (legal and illegal) dropped from 1,231 in 1942 to 39 in 1972, the year before Roe v. Wade. The 1965 and 1973 legalization of birth control has also affected this downward trend (Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965), Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. 438 (1973)).
In 1990 it is estimated that over 1400 women died following a legalized abortions with the majority of these deaths resulting from suicide, homicide or accident. In 1990 abortion related maternal deaths calculate to be 10 times higher than reported deaths caused from complications due to illegal abortion as reported to the CDC in 1972.
I estimate that in the United States between 1970-2005 that 12,000 maternal deaths have occurred as compared if the mother had given birth or had a miscarriage. In the years following WOE v. WADE there have been an estimated 45,000,000 children that have died from abortion. Data sources: STAKES data mortality rates (deaths per 100,000) of 27 birth, 48 miscarriage and 101 legal abortion, CDC 1970 total reported deaths of 39 per year from illegal abortions, estimated 45,000,000 actual abortions from 1970 to 2005.)
This is G o o g l e's cache of http://www.vcn.bc.ca/~whatsup/Finnish.html as retrieved on Oct 16, 2005 20:46:22 GMT
Abortion Boosts 1-Year Death Risk by 252%
In comparing the death risk to the mom of elective abortion, Finnish researchers did what U.S. researchers have NOT done:
1. Included ALL causes of death (NO exclusions)
2. Made the time period extend to 52 weeks after 'the end of pregnancy', not a mere 6 weeks after.
From table I of that study it is possible to compute the relative mortality risks in the 12 months after the end of pregnancy of induced abortion and live birth:
Relative Maternal Death Risk
-----------------------
Women who Women with an
delivered Induced Abortion
Total mortality 1.0 3.52 [+252%]
Natural deaths 1.0 1.63 [ +63%]
Accidents 1.0 4.24 [+324%]
Suicides 1.0 6.46 [+546%]
Homicides 1.0 13.99 [+1299%]
----------------------------------------------
[ top Scandinavian journal in the area of obstetrics and gynecology: Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand 1997;76:651-657 ]
Table II. Pregnancy-associated mortality per 100,000 cases and age-adjusted odds ratio by the type of end of pregnancy compared to other women. Finland 1987-1994
End of pregnancy
---------------------------- No
Birth Miscarriage Abortion Pregnancy(1)
Number of
deaths 137 40 84 8931
Mortality:
Crude, total 26.7 47.8 100.5 91.6
Age-adjusted,
total 29.4 51.3 103.2 58.8
OR(2):
Total mortality 0.50 0.87 1.76 1.0
(0.32-0.78) (0.60-1.27) (1.27-2.42)
Natural deaths 0.49 0.43 0.80 1.0
(0.27-0.89) (0.23-0.80) (0.48-1.33)
Accidents 0.49 1.40 2.08 1.0
(0.18-1.33) (0.66-2.98) (1.03-4.20)
Suicides 0.57 1.44 3.68 1.0
(0.22-1.48) (0.68-3.05) (1.92-7.04)
Homicides 0.31 1.82 4.33 1.0
(0.02-4.42) (0.36-9.10) (1.03-18.2)
---------------------------------------------------
1 Women aged 15-49 not having a completed pregnancy during their last year of living, including 20 deaths of pregnancy women.
2 Age-adjusted odds ratio of mortality after birth, miscarriage, or abortion compared to mortality of other women (95% confidence intervals in parentheses).
----------------------------------------------------
The Abstract of this 1997 report:
Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand 1997;76:651-657, Pregnancy-associated deaths in Finland 1987-1994 - definition problems and benefits of record linkage, Mika Gissler, Riitta Kauppila, Jouni Merilainen, Henri Toukomaa, and Elina Hemminki
Background. Our aim was to study the impact of record linkage and different classification principles on maternal mortality rate.
Methods. The death certificates of all fertile-aged women who died in 1987-94 in Finland (n=9,192) were linked to the Birth, Abortion, and Hospital Discharge Registers (n=513,472) births, 93,807 induced abortions, and 71,701 other ended pregnancies) to identify the women who had been pregnant during their last year of life. All deaths that occurred up to 1 year after the end of pregnancy were classified according to their connection to pregnancy.
Results. In total, 281 qualifying deaths were found. Only in 22% of the death certificates was the pregnancy or its end mentioned. The mortality rate was 41 per 100,000 registered ended pregnancies (27 for births, 48 for miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies, and 101 for abortions). The maternal mortality rate depended greatly on which of the 281 cases were defined as maternal deaths. The early maternal mortality rate varied between 0.6 and 2.5 depending on the definition used. The classification of other than direct maternal deaths was ambiguous, especially in case of late cancers, cardio- and cerebrovascular diseases, and early suicides. The official Finnish figure for early maternal mortality (6.0/100,000 live births) seems to be a good estimate, although only 65% of individual deaths were unambiguously classified.
Conclusions. Register linkage is necessary to identify late maternal deaths and pregnancy-associated deaths. The current official classification of maternal deaths as indirect, direct and fortuitous is arbitrary and allows much variation in defining a maternal death.
I believe the Natural Human Law of "do not harm to others" and "one man to one woman" leads to these statistics. Though speculation without data lead is not part of the scientific process.
With that in mind 'perhaps' the demographics of the women that choose abortion are prone to take risks resulting in `unplanned' pregnancies and also lead to higher accident and homicide rates. Researcher Mika Gissler can glean some light on the subject.
Self guilt may play the key roll. The suicide rates are cyclical around the anticipated birth date of the aborted child. The most revealing data are illustrated in Figure 1. http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/313/7070/1431
Social class does play a role in the rate of suicide. (61% of these women belonged to the lowest of three social groups, while 41% of all women who had had an abortion belonged to this group (P=0.06)). 71.3% of all abortion were given to unmarried women. Out of wedlock pregnancy and not social status may true root cause / leading indicator of abortion. http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/313/7070/1431
Medical advances in the protection of unborn to prevent contraction of AID during birthing may reduce prior possible correlation of suicide on the abortion decision process.
Women who have abortions COULD BE more likely to.
Bungiejump
Do Drugs
Drag Race
Sky Dive
Drive Red Cars
Not properly chew their food
etc. etc. etc.
Unless this is parcelled out into better statistic, this analysis is unlikely to be anything more than a talking point (however 'true').
maybe I shouldn't have written that... didn't read the end (Table 2).
Once again, we can blame our Supreme Court for the failure of the United States to maintain basic information about a common "medical procedure".
We are unable to maintain and track this type of information because we can't get past debating whether or not the people ought to be allowed to debate it.
If I recall correctly, during the Clinton administration, they changed the "death due to childbirth" statistic to include deaths due to abortion. I believe this was done to justify the pro-abortion position that childbirth is dangerous, therefore, women ought to be able to avoid it, by abortion if necessary. It was an attempt to further mislead the American public.
If we are ever allowed to regulate abortion, statistics like this can be used to counsel women during a required waiting period. If more women knew the higher death rate, the higher depression rate, the higher suicide rate, the higher health risk, etc. more abortions may be avoided.
In the meantime, all we can do is argue that we have a right to argue about it.
The first rule of statisical inference is that you can infer only about the population you sample. It's pretty obvious that they're looking at 2 very different groups here, those who have abortions and those who deliver babies:
The mean age is very comparable, 29.2 for those who deliver to 27.6 to those who abort. However the spread is very different. The women who choose abortion have a much flatter distribution, with 16.3% being < 20 versus only 2.8% for those who delivered. On the other end 22.4% of the women who chose abortion were 35 or older versus only 13.7% of the women who delvered.
The same thing plays out in the marriage stats, with only 27.7% of the women having abortions being married compared to 72% of women who deliver. It's obvious there are 2 very different populations here. Making comparisons between the 2 doesn't make sense.
Once in one of my undergraduate statistic classes I did a project tying obesity to consumption of diet colas. My partner and I "staked out" the school cafeteria soda machines to see who was getting what type of soda. We asked every 7th person their weight and type of soda (diet or regular). In the end we found an association -- heavier people drink diet soda. Does that mean diet sodas cause obesity in college kids? No. Just because there's a correlation doesn't mean one caused the other. Correlation is not causation.
Which brings the problem in this study:
Low social class and poor social support have been connected with risk factors for suicide after birth. The risk for postnatal depression is greater for women with low income or with occupational instability, and puerperal psychoses are more common among young mothers and women with poor social support. Social class has also been found to be associated with all mental disorders after an abortion. Data from the abortion register showed that women in the lowest social class were highly over-represented among women who committed suicide. We did not, however, have complete information on social class in our data. No control group for social class after birth and miscarriage and for the general population was available. In addition, the social class was based only on the mother's occupation.
What the authors found is that poor women have more problems than do richer women. They're more likely to be unmarried, more likely to have abortions, and more likely to commit suicide or be victims of violence.
Is this surprising to anybody? Extending this study beyond that is going beyond the available data.
I agree, graduate engineering statistical classes and ASQ SSBB training and certification do point out that inferences and correlation to not necessarily direct you to true cause and affect relationships.
Marriage is the key characteristic not social class. The birth/abortion ratios swing by a factor of greater that seven when compared against the marital status. The social status ratios may also be highly correlated to the rate premarital relations. Since single women may be most likely to be found in the lower social classes.
Which again leads me back to my conclusion that the Natural Human Laws of "do not harm to others" and "one man to one woman" leads to these statistics?
Birth Abortion
Marital Status: Count % Count %
Married 373827 72 25932 27.7
Not Married 129907 25.4 67812 72.3
Social class+:
I 11029 16.9 1321 1.4
II 41382 63.4 52124 55.6
III 12803 19.6 38067 40.6
Is it birth vs. abortion for various social classes? If so, why don't the percentages add up to 100% (or in the case of "II" add up to almost 120%)?
Why are women who get abortions more likely to die in accidents or homicide?
Are women who ultimately get abortions more likely to have been in poorer health prior to the decision to have an abortion? (e.g., woman with AIDS may be more likely to get an abortion than if she didn't have AIDS. This would increase any abortion-mortality correlation.)