Pro-life expert debunks claim that abortion restrictions are linked to maternal deaths

07/30/2024 / By Laura Harris

A recent review by a prominent pro-life researcher disputes the claims of the Commonwealth Fund regarding the impact of pro-life laws on women’s health services.

On July 18, the Commonwealth Fund, a health care foundation, released a report stating the disparities in women’s health and reproductive care across the United States. These disparities are attributed to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision which overturned Roe v. Wade. The report suggests that the decision, which allowed states to enact their own abortion laws, significantly altered access to critical reproductive health services.

The report ranked Mississippi, Texas, Nevada, Oklahoma and Arkansas as the lowest-performing states for women’s health system performance, while Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Hampshire were the highest-ranked. It also noted that states with abortion restrictions, like Arkansas, Oklahoma, Alabama and Idaho, tend to have fewer maternity care providers. The report claims that these states only have 52 to 56 providers per 100,000 women of reproductive age.

Commonwealth Fund’s scorecard purported to show that pro-life states fare worse in various health metrics, including health insurance coverage, syphilis rates and maternal deaths. It also pointed to widening racial and ethnic disparities in health outcomes.

But a recent review, published in the National Review by Catholic University of America professor and Charlotte Lozier Institutes scholar Michael New, challenges these findings on several fronts. New noted that much of the data used in the Commonwealth Fund’s report came from 2022, even though Roe v. Wade was only overturned in June of that year. According to New, this timing issue undermines the validity of its conclusions. (Related: Pro-life organizations in Florida are mobilizing to defeat ballot initiative that seeks to legalize unrestricted abortion in the state.)

“The scorecard does not compare pre-Dobbs data to post-Dobbs data,” New stated. “All it shows is that some states with strong pro-life laws fare poorly on some public-health metrics. The problem is that many states with strong protections for the preborn are also states with above-average poverty rates. In general, states with high poverty rates also tend to have below-average public health outcomes. Overall, poverty is a cause of poor public health, not pro-life laws.”

Furthermore, New pointed out that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data indicates maternal mortality decreased by 16 percent between 2022 and 2023. He also cites international data associating pro-life protections with better health outcomes for mothers.

Democrats and pro-abortion advocates have been blocking pro-life advocates for several years

In the past few years, the abortion lobby has been actively working to counter most abortion strategies through various strategies.

For instance, in March 2024, the Supreme Court began its oral arguments regarding the Alliance Defending Freedom’s lawsuit against the decision of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to remove the requirement for in-person distribution of abortion pills. Instead, the FDA allowed them to be sent through mail with a prescription.

Similarly, in 2022, George Soros funded efforts to support out-of-state abortion seekers in blue states. Democrats codified abortion rights in federal law, increased the distribution of abortion pills by mail, and provided financial assistance for women in pro-life states to travel for abortions.

Maryland is one of the states that responded to this need. Baltimore’s Democrat Mayor Brandon Scott and the Baltimore chapter of Soros’s Open Society Institute (OSI) have pledged a combined $550,000 to the Baltimore Civic Fund. This fund will provide grants to abortion organizations preparing for an influx of out-of-state abortion seekers. Scott has committed to making Baltimore a safe haven for abortion access, with the Baltimore Abortion Fund offering travel, lodging and scheduling assistance to those coming from other states.

These pro-abortion strategies have been successful in stoking fear among the general public and using false claims that pro-life laws are dangerous.

Visit Abortions.news for more stories related to the killing of the unborn.

Watch this Fox News report of the Supreme Court issuing a ruling that allows hospitals to perform emergency abortions.

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