Abortion safer than giving birth: study (Yes, it has come to this)

Reuters ^ | 01/24/2012 | Genevra Pittman

[SeekAndFind]

(Reuters Health) - Getting a legal abortion is much safer than giving birth, suggests a new U.S. study published Monday.

Researchers found that women were about 14 times more likely to die during or after giving birth to a live baby than to die from complications of an abortion.

Experts say the findings, though not unexpected, contradict some state laws that suggest abortions are high-risk procedures.

The message is that getting an abortion and giving birth are both safe, said Dr. Anne Davis, who studies obstetrics and gynecology at the Columbia University Medical Center in New York, and wasn't involved in the new study.

"We wouldn't tell people, 'Don't have a baby because it's safer to have an abortion' -- that's ridiculous," she told Reuters Health. "We're trying to help women who are having all reproductive experiences know what to expect."

An induced abortion -- like any other medical procedure -- requires getting informed consent from the woman, said Dr. Bryna Harwood, an ob-gyn from the University of Illinois in Chicago who also didn't participate in the new research.

That means women understand and acknowledge the risks of their different options.

What makes it complicated, Harwood added, is when the law interferes and requires doctors to state information that isn't always balanced or medically sound -- usually exaggerating the risk of abortion.

The researchers on the new study combined government data on live births and pregnancy- and abortion-related deaths with estimates on legal abortions performed in the U.S. from the Guttmacher Institute, which conducts sexual and reproductive health research and education.

[Lorianne]

Messaging aimed at pathologizing childbirth.
Of course, the larger goal is to stigmatize women who give birth as ‘polluters’ (and incidently, leave men totally out of the equation ... it’s easier to punish women).

[americas.best.days...]

also, i’ve heard that death at an early age
can reduce or eliminate the hideous effects of aging!

[CGalen]

Yeah, doesnt every abortion, even the “successful” ones, result in at least 1 fatality ?

[bgill]

Just a wild guess but keeping your knees together would be the safest.

Hmm, maybe they should verify their findings by asking the baby.

[SampleMan]

Over 50% of abortion patients die during the procedure. Birth death rates are extremely low in comparison, so they lie.

[flyfire]

Safer for who? Not the baby.

[Secret Agent Man]

I thought PP gave up on ‘science because it wasn’t working out too well for their side.

Ask a woman who’d they’d rather have down there, an ob/gyn or a bottom of the barrel butcher?

[b9]

But never, ever, ever NEARLY as satisfying. Giving birth was the most beautiful, rewarding, and loving experience I have ever had in my entire life. It renews itself every single second of every minute of every day. A true miracle directly from G-d. Woe unto them who murder G-d’s greatest gift to mankind.

TRUE! Beautifully stated.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

I call BS. The established literature repeatedly found exactly the reverse. See here.

Also the numbers don't tie. If 150 moms die from abortion each year, the authors' "1 per 167,000" statistic means that there are over 25 million abortions in the US each year.

This article is propaganda.