Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Summer 5-26-2020
Journal / Book Title
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Abstract
Objectives: Since the US Supreme Court′s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, states have enacted laws restricting access to abortion services. Previous studies suggest that restricting access to abortion is a risk factor for adverse maternal and infant health. The objective of this investigation is to study the relationship between the type and the number of state-level restrictive abortion laws and infant mortality risk. Methods: We used data on 11,972,629 infants and mothers from the US Cohort Linked Birth/Infant Death Data Files 2008–2010. State-level abortion laws included Medicaid funding restrictions, mandatory parental involvement, mandatory counseling, mandatory waiting period, and two-visit laws. Multilevel logistic regression was used to determine whether the type or number of state-level restrictive abortion laws during the year of birth were associated with odds of infant mortality. Results: Compared to infants living in states with no restrictive laws, infants living in states with one or two restrictive laws (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 1.08; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.99–1.18) and those living in states with 3 to 5 restrictive laws (AOR = 1.10; 95% CI = 1.01–1.20) were more likely to die. Separate analyses examining the relationship between parental involvement laws and infant mortality risk, stratified by maternal age, indicated that significant associations were observed among mothers aged ≤19 years (AOR = 1.09, 95% CI = 1.00–1.19), and 20 to 25 years (AOR = 1.10, 95% CI = 1.03–1.17). No significant association was observed among infants born to older mothers. Conclusion: Restricting access to abortion services may increase the risk for infant mortality.
DOI
10.3390/ijerph17113773
MSU Digital Commons Citation
Pabayo, Roman; Ehntholt, Amy; Cook, Daniel M.; Reynolds, Megan; Muennig, Peter; and Liu, Sze Yan, "Laws Restricting Access to Abortion Services and Infant Mortality Risk in the United States" (2020). Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works. 142.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/public-health-facpubs/142
Published Citation
Pabayo, Roman, Amy Ehntholt, Daniel M. Cook, Megan Reynolds, Peter Muennig, and Sze Y. Liu. "Laws Restricting Access to Abortion Services and Infant Mortality Risk in the United States." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17, no. 11 (2020): 3773.
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Comments
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).