Posted on 05/14/2005 5:25:00 PM PDT by Asphalt
The finding makes perfect sense when you understand what has to be done to perform an abortion. In order to abort a baby, the cervix must be opened, because that powerful muscle is what is holding the baby inside. During the birth process the cervix is dilated (opened)slowly and naturally because of the hormones released by the baby signalling the time for its birth. In an abortion, these hormones are not present, so the cervix has to be forced open.
The forced opening of the cervix causes that muscle to lose some of its strength. It is then less effective in holding a subsequent baby in the womb as it grows and exerts more pressure on the cervix. Because of this, babies are born prematurely because their mothers cannot hold them in the womb much past the beginning of the third trimester when the baby has grown much larger.
Very preceptive!
Thanx for the ping.
I get the impression that any researcher who approaches this topic does so with the utmost care, in order to avoid the demonization of the pro-abortion crowd. This appears to be a very well designed and analysed study.
You can read the original article ($26 for 30 days' access) at
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1471-0528.2004.00478.x
The abstract is available online at
The risks were adjusted for age and other risk factors:
"a Adjusted for maternal age, parity, previous preterm births, marital status, educational level, employment during pregnancy, weight before pregnancy, smoking during pregnancy in a polytomous regression model."
Prior to adjustment, the risk was 1.9 for the very preterm births.
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