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Link between abortion and later very pre-term births

A new study will be rocketing around the pro-life and conservative media universe for the next few days, and likely making its way into pro-life literature for years to come.

The study, published in Human Reproduction, reports a correlation between induced abortion, in particular repeat induced abortions, and "very pre-term births," which are births that occur before 28 weeks of gestation.

The most pronounced effects appear where women have had three or more abortions. In the new study,  this represented .3% of all participants, or approximately 900 out of 300,000 women.

Pro-life activists have attempted to document various side effects of abortion-- depression and increased risk of breast cancer being two prominent examples-- but the science has not been there, despite insistence to the contrary. So any study published in a reputable journal will be seized on with extra enthusiasm.

Links:

The New York Times report: Abortions Linked to Risk of Preterm Birth

Abstract of the article in Human Reproduction: Birth outcomes after induced abortion: a nationwide register-based study of first births in Finland

Here is an example of pro-life reporting on the study, from LifeNews.com: Multiple Abortions Cause Preterm Birth Risk for Women


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