WECARE Affiliates Byron Calhoun and Patrick Carroll with UNC Chapel Hill Researcher, John Thorp publish “Maternal and Neonatal Health and Abortion: 40-Year Trends in Great Britain and Ireland'

Published in the American Journal of Physicians and Surgeons Summer 2013 Issue, the data indicate that legal elective abortion does not provide any maternal or neonatal health benefits, and the data actually show that abortion is associated with worsening maternal mortality rates, stillbirth rates, and preterm birth rates. The researchers specifically reported: 1) the maternal mortality rate in the Republic of Ireland was 3/100,000 live-births compared to double the rate in England, Scotland, and Wales; 2) a lower stillbirth rate in the Republic in 2010 of 3.8/1,000 live births compared to  5.1/1,000 in England, Scotland, and Wales; and 3) a lower preterm birth rate in the Republic < 37 weeks in 2010 with a rate of 42.7/1,000 live births compared to 48/1,000 in England and Wales and 72/1,000 in Scotland. 

In their conclusion, they note, “Women’s health policy advocates, and national health systems ought to take careful note of these adverse ecological findings as a result of 40 years of legalized abortion in the UK compared with abortion free Ireland.”