Will Overturning Roe v. Wade Lead to More Pregnant Women Dying?
What impact would overturning Roe v. Wade have on the maternal mortality rate?
Overturning Roe v. Wade would mean that individual states would have the power to ban abortion, and a number of states are poised to do so.
A pro-choice researcher claims that banning abortion will result in more pregnant women dying, and predicts that if Roe is overturned, pregnancy-related deaths will increase by 21%.
Many other pro-choice groups and activists have said that the Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR), or rate of women dying related to pregnancy and childbirth, will go up if Roe is overturned.
Let’s analyze this claim by looking at statistics from the US and elsewhere.
Overturning Roe, Banning Abortion, and the Effect on the Maternal Morality Rate
If this is true, we would expect to see that (1) countries with legal abortion would have lower rates of pregnancy-related deaths (Maternal Mortality Rates) than ones without legal abortion, and (2) legalizing abortion would make the maternal mortality rate go down and banning it would cause it to rise.
