Having an abortion almost doubles a woman’s risk of giving birth dangerously early in a later pregnancy, according to research that will provoke fresh debate over the most controversial of all medical procedures.
A French study of 2,837 births — the first to probe the link between terminations and extremely premature births — found that mothers who had had an abortion were 1.7 times more likely to give birth to a baby at less than 28 weeks’ gestation. Many babies born this early die soon after birth, and several who survive suffer serious disability.
The research leader, Caroline Moreau, an epidemiologist at the Hôpital de Bicêtre in Paris, said the results of the study, which appear in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, provided conclusive evidence of a link between induced abortion and subsequent pre-term births.
Last night, anti-abortion campaigners seized on the evidence to demand that all women seeking a termination be warned, routinely, that they are jeopardising the well-being of future babies. A series of earlier, smaller studies had failed to provide clear evidence of a link and so women currently opting for an abortion are not warned of the risk.
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A French study of 2,837 births — the first to probe the link between terminations and extremely premature births — found that mothers who had had an abortion were 1.7 times more likely to give birth to a baby at less than 28 weeks’ gestation. Many babies born this early die soon after birth, and several who survive suffer serious disability.
The research leader, Caroline Moreau, an epidemiologist at the Hôpital de Bicêtre in Paris, said the results of the study, which appear in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, provided conclusive evidence of a link between induced abortion and subsequent pre-term births.
Last night, anti-abortion campaigners seized on the evidence to demand that all women seeking a termination be warned, routinely, that they are jeopardising the well-being of future babies. A series of earlier, smaller studies had failed to provide clear evidence of a link and so women currently opting for an abortion are not warned of the risk.
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