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Abortion and infant mortality before and after the 1973 US Supreme Court decision on abortion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

Leon S. Robertson
Leon S. Robertson
Affiliation:
Center for Health Studies and Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
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Summary

The fifty states of the US were compared in 1971–72 and 1974–75 with respect to percentage apparent conceptions aborted and infant mortality rates attributed to various causes. Only non-vehicle accidental deaths were consistently related to abortion. The correlation is non-linear; non-vehicle accidental deaths were especially high in states with little or no abortion. A decline in non-vehicle accidental deaths from before to after the Supreme Court decision was most pronounced in states where there were fewest abortions before the decision and where increases in abortion occurred following the decision.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 13 , Issue 3 , July 1981 , pp. 275 - 280
Copyright
Copyright © 1981, Cambridge University Press

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References

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