A new study shows that there has been a significant rise in infant deaths in the months following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v.
Wade. The study was published on Monday in JAMA Pediatrics. The study also highlighted that a majority of these infants had congenital anomalies or birth defects.
Dr Parvati Singh, an assistant professor of epidemiology at The Ohio State University College of Public Health and lead author of the new study said, “This is evidence of a national ripple effect, regardless of state-level status.” Singh and co-author Dr Maria Gallo, a professor of epidemiology and associate dean of research with the Ohio State University College of Public Health, compared infant mortality rates for the 18 months following the Dobbs decision against historical trends. They found that infant mortality was higher than usual in the US in several months after the Dobbs decision and never dropped to rates that were lower than expected, according to a report in CNN.
October 2022, March 2023 and April 2023 had higher infant mortality than expected. The rates were nearly 7% higher than usual which led to an average of 247 more infant deaths in each of those months. The new study also says that about 80% of those additional infant deaths could be attributed to congenital anomalies, which were higher than expected in six of the 18 months following the Dobbs decision Singh said, “This is the tip of the iceberg.
Mortality is the ultimate outcome of any he.