Texas lawmakers touted their anti-abortion ‘heartbeat’ law as legislation that would save lives, but new research shows the opposite to be true.
The study, published on Monday, reveals more infants have died in the state than before the near-total ban on abortion was put into place.
Today marks two years since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, making these findings all the more significant. A total of 21 states have enacted some form of abortion bans, with 14 states banning abortion outright.
Texas is one of those states. On September 1, 2021, a law went into effect in the state prohibiting abortions after a foetal heartbeat could be detected– as early as five or six weeks. Dubbed the ‘Heartbeat’ law, Senate Bill 8 became the most stringent state abortion law in the country, not even allowing for exemptions for congenital anomalies.
Researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health analysed the monthly death certificate data in Texas and the rest of the US between 2021 and 2022. They found that within that time frame, infant deaths in Texas rose from 1,985 to 2,240, meaning there was a year-over-year increase of 255 deaths.
This corresponds to a 12.9 per cent increase in infant deaths in Texas versus a 1.8 increase in infant deaths in the rest of the US during the same period. The study defines infants as under 12 months old.
Published online June 24 in JAMA Pediatrics, this study is the first to examine how the Texas abortion ban may have impacted infant deaths in the state. It’s also among the first to present evidence evaluating recent abortion bans and pre-viability restrictions.
While prior research has shown that states with more abortion restrictions see more infant deaths than those without, the study’s authors note that these earlier studies evaluate fundamentally different and less severe abortion restrictions.
“These findings suggest that restrictive abortion policies may have important unintended consequences in terms of infant health and the associated trauma to families and medical costs,” said one of the study’s lead authors, Alison Gemmill, PhD, assistant professor in the Bloomberg School’s Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has not disputed the study’s findings, but he has defended the Republican-controlled state’s anti-abortion record, with a statement saying “thousands of children have been given a chance at life” due to the 2021 heartbeat law. Other anti-abortion advocates have also maintained, despite the study’s findings, that they believe terminating a foetus with a terminal illness is “choosing to kill that child intentionally”.
Another of the study’s lead authors, Suzanne Bell, PhD, MPH, assistant professor in the Bloomberg School’s Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health said: “Our results suggest that restrictive abortion policies that limit pregnant people’s ability to terminate pregnancies, particularly those with foetal abnormalities diagnosed later in pregnancy, may lead to increases in infant mortality.”
“These findings make clear the potentially devastating consequences abortion bans can have on pregnant people and families who are unable to overcome barriers to this essential reproductive health service.”
Reproductive rights ahead of the US presidential election
Women in Texas have been outspoken about the fact that their reproductive rights are a defining election issue for them going into the US presidential election in November.
“Pre-Dobbs, we were already in a pretty bad place in Texas,” Lauren Miller told NBC News in a recent interview. She’s one of a group of women who sued the Texas Supreme Court last month for being denied an abortion despite serious health complications during pregnancy.
In the court case, Zurawaski v. State of Texas, the group of women were represented by the Center for Reproductive Rights. They grew to include a total of 20 women and two obstetrician-gynaecologists who sought more specific guidelines about what situations qualify for medical emergency exceptions to Texas’ strict ban.
The woman whose name is at the centre of the case, Amanda Zurawaski gave a powerful speech in a Senate hearing last April detailing how she “nearly died” because of the policies supported by Senator Ted Cruz and Senator John Cornyn at the time.
“Because I wasn’t permitted to have an abortion and the trauma and the PTSD and the depression that I have dealt with in the eight months since this happened to me is paralysing,” she said. “On top of that, I am still struggling to have children.”
These kinds of distressing stories are becoming all the more commonplace in Texas.
Last month, a radio host based in Texas went viral for recounting the horrors his wife was forced to endure when trying to terminate a pregnancy, giving the chilling statement that “No one should ever have to hear their wife say: ‘Get this dead baby out of me!’.”
As the presidential election campaign rolls on between the Democratic candidate Joe Biden and the Republican candidate Donald Trump, abortion is a highly contested topic.
The Biden campaign is trying to draw a direct link to Trump and abortion bans as former president Trump is considered largely responsible for Dobbs’ overturning.
“This is a health care crisis, and we know who is to blame: Donald Trump,” US Vice President Kamala Harris is set to say at a rally marking Dobbs anniversary. The White House shared excerpts ahead of her speech with The Guardian.
“Donald Trump hand-picked three members of the United States Supreme Court because he intended for them to overturn Roe. So it was premeditated.”
“Trump has not denied, much less shown remorse, for his actions. Instead, he proudly takes credit for overturning Roe. In a court of law, that would be called an admission. Some would say, a confession.”
“In the case of the stealing of reproductive freedom from the women of America, Donald Trump is guilty.”