Infant deaths have increased in the United States since the Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe vs. Wade and allowed states to make abortion illegal, researchers reported Monday.

The change became detectable three months after the June 2022 ruling with an elevated rate of infant mortality involving babies born with serious congenital anomalies, the researchers found.

By the end of 2023, there were six months when the death rate for infants with severe anatomical problems was significantly higher than in the years leading up to the high court’s decision. The researchers also identified three months when the nation’s overall infant mortality rate had increased.

However, neither of those rates fell below their historical range in the year and a half after the ruling in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

The findings, reported Monday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, were seen as a clear sign that the Dobbs decision has prevented some women from terminating pregnancies that otherwise would have ended in abortion.

    • [email protected]@sh.itjust.works
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      2 months ago

      For real. Well, minor amendment. The only people surprised by this are the folks who find no connection between extensive firearm sales and firearm deaths.

    • Diplomjodler@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      System works as designed. Whoever says any of this is about “saving babies” is a despicable liar.

    • Samvega@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 months ago

      It looks like the will of the gods is that humans are harmed by anthropogenic climate change. Nice one.

    • YaDownWitCPP@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      So babies that were previously aborted that weren’t counted in the infant mortality rate are now dying after birth and are counted in the infant mortality rate.

      Either way, it’s the same number of dead babies.

      • Jake Farm@sopuli.xyz
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        2 months ago

        Same number maybe but now the mothers are also made to carry term non-viable babies and are exposed to the danger of child birth for what? Moral brownie points?

      • feannag@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        In these cases, though, access to abortion means less suffering, both for the fetus/child and the mother.

      • nman90@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        But now you have the additional costs and trauma of giving birth just to see the baby die in your arms, and for what, because some crazy people say its their sky dads will.

      • harmsy@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Let’s not beat around the bush here. They were aborted because they were basically already dead in the “Fist of the North Star” sense of the phrase. Nothing could be done to save them. The would-be mothers knew there was nothing that could save their pregnancies. Their doctors knew there was nothing that could save these pregnancies. They were forced to keep going anyway.