Abortion Boosts 1-Year Death Risk by 252%
In comparing the death risk to the mom of elective abortion,
Finnish researchers did what U.S. researchers have NOT done:
1. Included ALL causes of death (NO exclusions)
2. Made the time period extend to 52 weeks after 'the end
of pregnancy', not a mere 6 weeks after.
From table II of that study it is possible to compute the
relative mortality risks in the 12 months after the end of
of pregnancy of induced abortion and live birth:
Relative Maternal Death Risk
-----------------------
Women who Women with an
delivered Induced Abortion
Total mortality 1.0 3.52 [+252%]
Natural deaths 1.0 1.63 [ +63%]
Accidents 1.0 4.24 [+324%]
Suicides 1.0 6.46 [+546%]
Homicides 1.0 13.99 [+1299%]
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[ top Scandinavian journal in the area of obstetrics
and gynecology: Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand 1997;76:651-657 ]
Table II. Pregnancy-associated mortality per 100,000
cases and age-adjusted odds ratio by the type of end
of pregnancy compared to other women. Finland 1987-
1994
----------------------------------------------------
End of pregnancy
---------------------------- No
Birth Miscarriage Abortion Pregnancy(1)
Number of
deaths 137 40 84 8931
Mortality:
Crude, total 26.7 47.8 100.5 91.6
Age-adjusted,
total 29.4 51.3 103.2 58.8
OR(2):
Total mortality 0.50 0.87 1.76 1.0
(0.32-0.78) (0.60-1.27) (1.27-2.42)
Natural deaths 0.49 0.43 0.80 1.0
(0.27-0.89) (0.23-0.80) (0.48-1.33)
Accidents 0.49 1.40 2.08 1.0
(0.18-1.33) (0.66-2.98) (1.03-4.20)
Suicides 0.57 1.44 3.68 1.0
(0.22-1.48) (0.68-3.05) (1.92-7.04)
Homicides 0.31 1.82 4.33 1.0
(0.02-4.42) (0.36-9.10) (1.03-18.2)
---------------------------------------------------
1 Women aged 15-49 not having a completed pregnancy
during their last year of living, including 20
deaths of pregnancy women.
2 Age-adjusted odds ratio of mortality after birth,
miscarriage, or abortion compared to mortality of
other women (95% confidence intervals in paren-
theses).
----------------------------------------------------
The Abstract of this 1997 report:
Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand 1997;76:651-657
Pregnancy-associated deaths in Finland 1987-1994
- definition problems and benefits of record
linkage
Mika Gissler, Riitta Kauppila, Jouni Merilainen,
Henri Toukomaa, and Elina Hemminki
Background. Our aim was to study the impact of
record linkage and different classification
principles on maternal mortality rate.
Methods. The death certificates of all fertile-aged
women who died in 1987-94 in Finland (n=9,192) were
linked to the Birth, Abortion, and Hospital Dis-
charge Registers (n=513,472) births, 93,807 induced
abortions, and 71,701 other ended pregnancies) to
identify the women who had been pregnant during their
last year of life. All deaths that occurred up to 1
year after the end of pregnancy were classified
according to their connection to pregnancy.
Results. In total, 281 qualifying deaths were found.
Only in 22% of the death certificates was the preg-
nancy or its end mentioned. The mortality rate was
41 per 100,000 registered ended pregnancies (27 for
births, 48 for miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies,
and 101 for abortions). The maternal mortality rate
depended greatly on which of the 281 cases were
defined as maternal deaths. The early maternal
mortality rate varied between 0.6 and 2.5 depending
on the definition used. The classification of other
than direct maternal deaths was ambiguous, especially
in case of late cancers, cardio- and cerebrovascular
diseases, and early suicides. The official Finnish
figure for early maternal mortality (6.0/100,000
live births) seems to be a good estimate, although
only 65% of individual deaths were unambiguously
classified.
Conclusions. Register linkage is necessary to identify
late maternal deaths and pregnancy-associated deaths.
The current official classification of maternal deaths
as indirect, direct and fortuitous is arbitrary and
allows much variation in defining a maternal death.
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