Study Shows One Abortion Ups Premature Birth Risk for Women by 36 Percent

LifeNews.com ^ | September 16, 2009 | Steven Ertelt

[julieee]

Study Shows One Abortion Ups Premature Birth Risk for Women by 36 Percent

Ottawa, Canada (LifeNews.com) -- A new study by a Canadian researcher finds that women who have just one abortion increase the risk of having a premature birth in a subsequent pregnancy by 36 percent. The research is the latest in a long string of studies confirming the link between abortion and premature birth.

http://www.LifeNews.com/int1321.html

[HiTech RedNeck]

How does this compare with the impact of a premature stillbirth from natural causes, or of a successful term pregnancy?

[docbnj]

I don’t know if these studies are reliable.

A woman who has one abortion is very likely to be poor, and certainly likely to have her life poorly organized. Her nutrition and pre-natal care may not be very good: thus a premature birth might be expected.

These studies also must be corrected for race, and very likely they are not.

I worry that prolife people are putting too many eggs in this basket. After all, the main health issue is that the abortion itself is a killing. It is 100% (or just about 100%) fatal for the hapless fetus.

[TNdandelion]

There weren't many facts listed in the article. I had 3 D&C's prior to giving birth to my first child and I was never told that this placed me at greater risk of premature labor. A D&C is a fairly common minor surgical procedure. As a matter of fact, two of the D&C's that I had were called "routine" by a former physician of mine who was also performing exploratory laparascopic surgery on me at the same time. I had no problems with either pregnancy.

Maybe if the article had been more specific about the study's evidence it would have explained this.

[Mrs. Don-o]

IIRC, miscarriages and stillbirths often represent pregnancies that failed precisely because of insufficient or unbalanced hormonal levels. A pregnancy in this category never produces enough of the "trigger" hormones which first stimulate breast cell proliferation, then bring it to maturity, and then finally stabilize it.

In other words, a hormonally abnormal pregnancy which spontaneously terminates, does not set up the cytological conditions which could lead to either normal proliferative breast development or (when prematurely terminated) breast cancer.

That's why completed pregnancies, especially if followed by breast-feeding, are protective against breast cancer; abortions of normal pregnancies boost the breast cancer rate; but many (most?) spontaneous miscarriages don't affect the cancer rate, especially if they are early.

If I get the time to find a citation for that I'll post it.

[Mrs. Don-o]

OOPS. I was referring to the cancer rate; I didn't address the issue of subsequent pregnancy loss.

Sorry. Let me go back and look up the stats.

[netmilsmom]

I would think that all of it depends on the forced dilation of the cervix.

My mom had horrible fibroids that doctors removed every year. My sisters were three years apart and I was born five years after. She had five miscarriages between my older sister and myself then three more after me.

I’m not sure that a natural dilation from stillbirth is the same.

However, I am not an OB.

[chris_bdba]

IIRC in a miscarriage the hormones react differently and decrease more gradually than what happens with an abortion where they stop abruptly.

[HiTech RedNeck]

You are presumably speaking of a diagnostic procedure outside of the context of an abortion?

[Seruzawa]

Makes sense. If the mother killed one child the next one is going to want to get the he!! out of there ASAP.

[Groovie]

I had a D&C due to a fairly rare type of miscarriage where the baby dies but the placenta continues to grow. After the D&C I had to go in for weekly blood tests to make sure that the pregnancy hormone levels were decreasing. A few months later I became pregnant again with my son. He was born two months premature due to problems with the placenta and his lack of growth.

Neither my OB nor my OB specializing in high risk pregnancies ever indicated that the D&C was to blame for the difficult pregnancy and premature birth, but I wonder if it was.

[Neidermeyer]

A woman who has one abortion is very likely to be poor, and certainly likely to have her life poorly organized. Her nutrition and pre-natal care may not be very good: thus a premature birth might be expected.
***************************************************
You’re really making a lot of assumptions here aren’t you... This is the USA ,, we don’t really have ANYONE that has a lack of food ,, as to nutrition I’d have to say that with the gross amount of food eaten ,, even if it’s a steady diet of Kool Aid and Sugar Smacks even the poorest diet consumed will in aggregrate have plenty of nutrition.

I drive past several abortion clinics in my city regularly (I make deliveries to hospitals and labs) ,, the vast majority of cars you see in the parking lots are NOT $50 bombs ,, they’re typical middle class and better vehicles..

I can tell you from personal expeience inside the clinics (picking up diagnostic specimens for VD , cervical cancer and such) that the clinics do not buy nearly enough disposable equipment ,, I have seen them re-use dirty equipment repeatedly ,, they spread disease regularly ... also in the other instances mentioned in another reply , a natural abortion of a dead baby or a live birth to a young girl both have a slow and natural cervical opening,, in an abortion clinic they rip the cervix open as fast as they can to get the job done and move on... it is this cervical damage that I would think causes the majority of the preemie problems.