Friends,
Restrictive abortion policies are a very serious matter. Politicians who speak of the sanctity of life don't care to understand that women both understand this and still merit a right to choose. A woman's body is her own sanctity. Moreover, her body ought to be construed as her personal property against which no politician should legislate. In a country where private property is venerated, why isn't a woman's body similarly regarded? Patriarchy is the short answer. Religion and politics combine, as well, in a toxic mix.
According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, the most authoritative journal of medicine in the U.S., more infants in Texas are dying (Ollstein & Messerly, 2024). The study covered 2021 through 2022 before the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling by the Supreme Court, meaning that the number of infant deaths is likely higher now.
Policies that limit pregnant women's ability to terminate them—especially those with late-diagnosed fetal abnormalities—lurk behind this increase in infant mortality. What saddens me is the blunt force of policy resulting in infant deaths due to birth defects and genetics. This results in acute suffering by parents upon witnessing their infants die.
I have friends who experienced this. She and her husband gave the baby a name and she died shortly after she was born. I witnessed first-hand the profound anguish and suffering they went through watching their baby gasp for her final breaths of life. It was a traumatic experience for them. This all happened years ago and not in the context of Senate Bill 8, Texas' "Heartbeat law" discussed herein. It was nevertheless instructive and ties into the concerns raised here.
Incredibly, SB 8 makes no exceptions for fetal abnormalities, rape, or incest. I can only imagine the anguish today is magnified by the existence of harmful policies and politicians with doctors conveying remorse and sadness out of concern for the precarity so many women face due to policy constraints. Previously, before SB 8, abortion was legal up to 20 weeks of pregnancy. We should return to that and stop using abortion as a political tool.
First, however, we need to vote these folks out of power, period. If we don't, it'll only get worse. While Trump, should he win the presidency, may not call on a total abortion ban, according to this piece in Politico, Trump will likely make it harder to get one. I'm glad that they mention the "Project 2025" blueprint that proposes mandating coverage for natural family planning methods and eliminating the requirement for insurance to cover certain emergency contraception.
I repeat, no one should sit out this election. We all need to vote and get these patriarchs, including patriarchal women, out of power.
-Angela Valenzuela
Reference
Ollstein, A. M. & M. Messerly. (2024, May 29). Infant Deaths After Texas’ 2021 Ban on Abortion in Early Pregnancy, Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics.
More infants have died since Texas anti-abortion heartbeat law took effect, study shows
Despite Texas lawmakers' claims that their heartbeat law saves lives, a new study shows the strict abortion ban may have contributed to an increase in infant deaths.
Infant mortality increased after Texas heartbeat law, new study shows
Findings published in the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Medical Association study Monday reveal an increase in infant deaths after the state's Senate Bill 8 took effect. The study was conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University and Michigan State University.
What is the heartbeat law in Texas?
The law, also called the "Texas Heartbeat Act," bans abortion after fetal cardiac activity is detected. This usually occurs after about six weeks of pregnancy.
SB 8 became Texas law Sept. 1, 2021, and less than a year later the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a decision that had protected the constitutional right to abortion. The high court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization prompted more than a dozen states to issue near-total bans on abortion.
Observers speculate that evidence will also show increases in infant deaths in those states, akin to what Texas has seen, the study led by researchers at Johns Hopkins University said. The Texas bill makes no exceptions for rape, incest or fetal abnormalities, though it does allow abortions in certain medical emergencies. Before SB 8, abortion was legal until 20 weeks into pregnancy.
Anti-abortion laws linked to increase in infant deaths
The JAMA Pediatrics study found that, following Texas' passage of SB 8, more babies died before their first birthday. The deaths were likely due to birth defects or genetic problems not compatible with life, the pregnancies of which would typically have been terminated by abortion, according to researchers. Such conditions are not exempted from SB 8's abortion ban; therefore, mothers are legally obligated by state law to carry the pregnancies to birth.
People are also reading:Texas abortion laws are preventing women from accessing crucial miscarriage care
Such restrictions can prove fatal, according to one of the study's lead authors.
“Our results suggest that restrictive abortion policies that limit pregnant people’s ability to terminate pregnancies, particularly those with fetal abnormalities diagnosed later in pregnancy, may lead to increases in infant mortality,” Suzanne Bell said in a release.
Another author of the study referred to the deaths following Texas' heartbeat law as "spillover effects on moms and babies."
“It just points to some of the devastating consequences of abortion bans that maybe people weren't thinking about when they passed these laws,” Alison Gemmill, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, told USA TODAY.
In the JAMA Pediatrics study, Gemmill and researchers wrote that the Texas law was linked to "unexpected increases in infant and neonatal deaths" between 2021 and 2022. Prior research drew a correlation between the uptick in infant deaths and anti-abortion laws taking effect. However, no studies until now have attributed the fatalities directly to the laws prohibiting the termination of these pregnancies.
In 2021 and 2022, the average increase in infant deaths in the U.S., excluding Texas, was 1.8%. In the same time period, infant deaths in Texas rose by 12.9%.
"Abortion care is an essential component of comprehensive healthcare, and when it is restricted, the human impacts are devastating," Wendy Davis, a senior adviser for Planned Parenthood Texas Votes, said in a statement.
Davis, who filibustered for abortion rights when she was a Democratic state senator, noted that the study only covered 2022, not the results in 2023 and 2024 in the wake of a more restrictive abortion ban that came with the Dobbs decision. This "likely means the situation on the ground today is even more dire," Davis said.
More on Texas reproductive rights:Amid Texas abortion ban, Democratic AGs meet in Austin to strategize on reproductive rights
Anti-abortion advocates respond to study's findings
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's office did not dispute the study's findings but defended the Republican-controlled state's anti-abortion record. This effort included the 2021 heartbeat law "to save the innocent unborn, and now thousands of children have been given a chance at life," Andrew Mahaleris, a spokesperson for Abbott, said in a statement to USA TODAY. He said the governor has taken "significant action to protect the sanctity of life" and offered resources to expectant mothers "so they can choose life for their child."
Amy O’Donnell, a spokesperson for Texas Alliance for Life, said the study’s findings didn’t come as a surprise. She said babies born with disabilities and even fatal anomalies deserve a chance at life, even if that means a newborn dies after birth from a condition doctors anticipated would be lethal. The death of a child is not easy, she acknowledged. She noted that her nonprofit offers resources for families grieving from such losses.
“In Texas, we celebrate every unborn child's life saved. We treasure the fact that our laws are protecting women's lives,” she said. “We don't apologize for the fact that we don't support discrimination against children facing disabilities or fatal diagnoses in or out of the womb. And that's the line that we just believe should not be crossed.”
USA TODAY reporter Eduardo Cuevas contributed to this report.
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