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Brent Rooney is a Canadian researcher and frequent contributor to RFFM.org. For the first time ever there were SYSTEMATIC Reviews of the premature birth risk of prior induced abortions in 2009. 100% of three (3) (aka 'hat trick') SYSTEMATIC APB (Abortion Preterm Birth) studies reported that prior surgical abortions (including 'suction' abortion) elevate future risk of premature delivery. Honorable Rep. Henry Waxman (Democrat, California) has been challenged to find (on or before 1 Feb. 2010) a SYSTEMATIC APB Review that does NOT find that induced abortions boost preemie risk. Here is that OPEN Letter to Hon. Rep. Henry Waxman: 4...

High rates of premature birth are the main reason the United States has higher infant mortality than do many other rich countries, government researchers reported Tuesday in their first detailed analysis of a longstanding problem. In Sweden, for instance, 6.3 percent of births were premature, compared with 12.4 percent in the United States in 2005, the latest year for which international rankings are available. Infant mortality also... --snip-- Dr. Fleischman said the smallest, earliest and most fragile babies were often born to poor and minority women who lacked health care and social support. The highest rates of infant mortality occur...

Health Reform: A critically ill premature baby is moved to a U.S hospital to get the treatment she couldn't get in the system we're told we should emulate. Cost-effective care? In Canada, as elsewhere, you get what you pay for.Ava Isabella Stinson was born last Thursday at St. Joseph's hospital in Hamilton, Ontario. Weighing only two pounds, she was born 13 weeks premature and needed some very special care. Unfortunately, there were no open neonatal intensive care beds for her at St. Joseph's — or anywhere else in the entire province of Ontario, it seems.

Women Taking Nutrient Lower Early Birth Risk by 70 Percent: Study Women who take folic acid supplements for at least a year before becoming pregnant can greatly reduce their risk of delivering a baby prematurely, researchers said on Thursday. Folic acid, a B vitamin, already is known to prevent major birth defects that involve a baby's brain or spine. This study shows it may provide another benefit -- cutting down on premature births in which babies have less time to develop in the womb and are more likely to experience serious medical problems. The study tracked about 35,000 pregnant women...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Two researchers say reducing abortions in the United States would significantly cut the rate of premature births. They say the rate has increased as abortion has been legalized and point to Poland as an example of how banning or significantly reducing abortions would help pregnant women. Dr. Richard E. Behrman, representing the Institute of Medicine, has identified prior first-trimester induced abortion as an “immutable medical risk factor associated with pre-term birth.”In his book Preterm Birth: Causes, Consequences, and Prevention, Behrman found that the premature birth rate in the U.S. was 12.5% in 2004 -- 40 percent...

The March of Dimes has announced a major fund raising effort to understand and battle premature deliveries. March of Dimes medical director Dr. Nancy Green told Time magazine that the 27 percent rise in premature births over the last few decades "is a mystery." Dr. Green's claim that the rise in premature birth rates is a mystery reflects either a distressing ignorance of the medical literature or a calculated case of selective recall. At least 48 published studies have shown significantly higher risk of premature birth and low birth weight deliveries among women with a history of abortion.(1-48) One of...