A new study by a Colorado professor argues carrying a pregnancy to term is more dangerous than abortion.
Amanda Jean Stevenson, professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, conducted research supporting that banning abortion will lead to a 21% increase in pregnancy-related deaths.
“We need to stop talking about coat hangers and start talking in an honest way about how these laws will actually impact women’s lives and mortality,” said Stevenson. “This study provides one piece of the evidence we need to begin that hard conversation.”
Stevenson used the annual number of maternal deaths to deduce how many women who get elected abortions would die if they carried to term. According to the Center for Disease Control, there was an average of 17.3 deaths for every 100,000 live births in 2017. The study concludes that there will be 49 more maternal deaths the first year and 140 deaths each year following.
“The takeaway here is that if you deny people abortion, pregnancy-related deaths will increase because staying pregnant is more dangerous to a woman than having an abortion,” Stevenson told CU Boulder Today.
Colorado Right to Life Director, Susan Sutherland, told Campus Reform, the argument about the dangers of carrying to term ultimately does not matter because it does not account for what abortion clearly is. Sutherland believes that abortion is the ending of a person’s life. The anti-abortion side stems from the belief that a fetus is entitled to the right to life.
“‘Staying pregnant’ means not murdering your baby,” Sutherland said. “The majority of abortion-murder is committed for convenience. Our society wants free sex with no consequences.”
Stevenson’s study was conducted directly following the new Texas abortion ban. The Lone Star State passed a Heartbeat Bill that bans abortion after six weeks when cardiac activity can be detected.