August AJOG: Induced abortion causes preterm births
The August issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology contains the article, “Care for women with prior preterm birth.” The lead author is Jay D. Iams, MD, MFM, Professor and Vice Chair of Ohio State University Dept. of OB/GYN. In the article is this statement:
Contrary to common belief, population-based studies [34-36] have found that elective pregnancy terminations in the first and second trimesters are associated with a very small but apparently real increase in the risk of subsequent spontaneous preterm birth [37].
The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists commended this article to its readers in an email alert, writing:
We applaud his statement. Most high profile American writers won’t breathe such a thing. Allow us to mention 2 points in regard to his observation.
1. “contrary to common belief….” There are currently 114 studies in the literature all showing a statistically significant association between induced abortion and subsequent preterm birth. And just about none to the contrary. Why then would this association be “contrary to common belief”? Because the association is systematically ignored or severely downplayed by the established authorities in our country. It is not mentioned under complications of induced abortion in any ACOG literature we know of. It is not generally taught. It is denied by default. Maybe that is why it is “contrary to common belief.” Obviously 114 articles should carry some weight, even to the willfully blind.
2. “… terminations… are associated with a very small but apparently real increase in the risk of subsequent spontaneous preterm birth.” Here Iams references the 2009 BJOG Shaw article, which found a 1.36 RR (36% increase) for PTB with a previous induced abortion. Iams calls this a “very small” increase?
Additionally, 50% of women who abort have more than one abortion, and the literature finds the PTB risk ratio for them goes to 1.6 to 1.9; that is, a 60% to 90% increase in PTB is subsequent pregnancies
Finally, in the abstract Dr. Iams notes: “African American women have rates of recurrent preterm birth that are nearly twice that of women of other backgrounds.”
He hazards no guess as to why. African-American women have an induced abortion rate 3 times that of other American women. Might that factor in to the 2 times increased rate of PTB? Perish the thought! Rather than consider the abortion association, some have even suggested it may be a racial genetic failing in the cervical tissues of African-Americans! (“see no evil”)
Prematurity carries certain severe risks. Preemies under 32 weeks have a Cerebral Palsy rates 55 times higher that the rates for a term baby. Ignoring the 114 studies mentioned above (the “blind eye” approach) may not be in the best interest of women considering an induced abortion or of their subsequent children – wouldn’t you say?
I’ve kept the March 2003 issue of Pregnancy magazine in my file because it contained such a rare find. Click to enlarge….
Note induced abortion was listed last of 14 causes of premature births, in just about a worst case scenario, but it was there. I searched the magazine’s website today for the keyword “abortion” and came up empty.
[Photo via Los Angeles Times]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
This is the perfect example of Anti-Choice “Cherry-picked” facts… read more than one paragraph and you will see this article has nothing to do with abortion. It’s about how to care for and predict pre-term BIRTHS!
Women who have delivered an infant between 16 and 36 weeks’ gestation have an increased risk of preterm birth in subsequent pregnancies. The risk increases with more than 1 preterm birth and is inversely proportional to the gestational age of the previous preterm birth. African American women have rates of recurrent preterm birth that are nearly twice that of women of other backgrounds. An approximate risk of recurrent preterm birth can be estimated by a comprehensive reproductive history, with emphasis on maternal race, the number and gestational age of prior births, and the sequence of events preceding the index preterm birth. Interventions including smoking cessation, eradication of asymptomatic bacteriuria, progestational agents, and cervical cerclage can reduce the risk of recurrent preterm birth when employed appropriately.
Please point out where it says number or gestation length of terminated pregnancies…
IT DOESN’T!!!
It says there is a very small connection but obviously it wasn’t even big enough to be listed in the section where they list the predetermining factors…
An approximate risk of recurrent preterm birth can be estimated by a comprehensive reproductive history, with emphasis on maternal race, the number and gestational age of prior births, and the sequence of events preceding the index preterm birth.
Next it tells you how simply you can treat a pregnancy to promote full term pregnancy in women who have given birth early in the past…
Biggz, I know you want to keep on believing that abortion is a harmless procedure with only the consequence of possible minor infections, but please at least look at it logically. In an abortion you have to FORCE open the cervix when it is NOT ready! Common sense, Briggz. A body part that is force to do something at the wrong time when it is NOT ready has a higher possibility of damage. At the end of pregnancy there are hormones that soften the cervix. I suspect a miscarriage does too. However even in 2nd trimester miscarriages the article suggests that it may cause damage to the cervix, thus increasing the chances of a premature birth. Imagine a 2nd trimester abortions!!!! Abortions complications are a BIG taboo, Briggz. Nothing is allowed to undermine an abortion. Thus any possibilities of complications with an abortion are swept under the rug. Poor-choicers can only advance their agenda by insisting that abortion has no consequences. Don’t tell us we cherry pick the facts, we state the obvious… the rug has a funny lump.
Hi Biggz,
Since you have such a vested interest in shouting down those who are prolife and spouting how you know more about abortion than me(a post abortive mom)I just have to ask if you are an abortionist? You spend so much of your time, energy and hatred here I just wondered and had to ask.
Don’t let me down now. I expect tons of exclamation points and capital letters to show us all how worked up you get in your “caring and love” for women.
Littlez,
I know nothing, NOTHING of automotive mechanics. I know as much about carpentry, household wiring, masonry, business management, etc. I am an academic, specifically a doctor of molecular and microbiology, and also trained in psychology, philosophy and theology.
I freely admit that I am not most women’s ideal of a husband around the house–a Mr. Fix-it. Admitting our strengths and weaknesses is a part of basic reality orientation as adults.
That said, you know as much about reading scientific literature as I do about reading a household wiring scheme, or even changing spark plugs in the car! Your comments about what AAPLOG detailed from the study reveals your ignorance, an ignorance that is as bad as mine with a toolbox in my hands.
Your posts look like the only birdhouse I ever built. The birds wouldn’t even land on it, much less inhabit it. The same for the product of your wordsmithing. Leave the scientific analyses to the professionals and the intellectually honest amateurs.
I actually have the article in my possession. Do you? Would you care to walk through it together?
Good for them. Although this often isn’t the case, even pro-choicers should agree that women should know the risks of abortion, the same way that they should know the risks of any other surgical procedure. Keeping that information from them is immoral and an insult to their intelligence.
Thats right Dr. Nadal! Bring it! You of all people here can understand and explain this article. I too wonder what your schooling and profession happens to be Biggz. But I won’t begrudge you your capital letters and exclamation points since I do that too :-)
I am not a scientist. But I know from personal experience with friends that EVERY SINGLE ONE of my friends who had an abortion (most only had one previous abortion though a couple had two or more) had major complications with placental abruption and preterm labor in their subsequent pregnancies. So I absolutely believe that abortion raises your risk of complications in later pregnancies. Biggz, no one is saying that abortion is the ONLY reason you could have a preemie. But it is a big reason. Anyone with a vagina who has been through pregnancy and childbirth and understands the mechanics involved would understand why. It took days and days for my cervix to soften naturally and allow my son to come out. My doctor kept checking me as my cervix accomplished this natural act. In an abortion they accomplish this in a matter of minutes with force. How is that healthy for a woman’s reproductive organs? It isn’t. Common sense Biggz.
On a side note, in “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” they specifically say that past abortions will not impact future pregnancies. Thats so dishonest.
Excellent post, Jill!
Sydney,
I didn’t use the book “What To Expct When You’re Expecting” when I was expecting, but thanks for bringing that part to my attention. I’ll be sure to let other pro-lifers know.
And I remember the checking of the cervix. Not my favorite part of pregnancy LOL
Any truthful OB/GYN will tell a patient that having previous elective abortions increases their risk of having problems caring a pregnancy to full-term. The more abortions increases the odds but for some women having only one abortion can cause problems of having an “incompetent cervical os” The bottom of the uterus is meant to stay closed until the end of a pregnancy. When the cervical os has been forced open with dialators (even gradually), a curette inserted to dismember and mutilate the unborn baby and then a suction catheter inserted that is attached to powerful vacuum so that the entire uterine contents are emptied this is NOT without potential side effects and consequences. All the pro-aborts can deny this all they want it is still the truth. So sad they refuse to tell women eveything so they can make an informed “choice”.
Well we are not discussing what you think in this post, we are discussing what the study finds and my quotes are directly from that study.
Gerard – you just spent quite a bit of time telling me how dumb I am and how wrong I am without pointing out anything that I misquoted or got incorrect in my analysis of this study. If all you wanted to do was to take shots at my intelligence and character then job well done…
However, please quote where this study says women should not have abortions if they want to carry their pregnancy to full term or where it says that abortion is a contributing factor more than say, maternal race, the number and gestational age of prior births, and the sequence of events preceding the index preterm birth.
Gerard your religious beliefs color your opinion here very obviously. Please count up for me how many times in the whole study the word abortion is even mentioned….
Chantal – Nobody is trying to sweep anything under the rug. You are perfectly welcome to go into any PP and see for yourself “without Lila Rose editing” and you will be treated like a patient at any other type of doctor office. I understand you might not agree with the information that you will be given but the broader international medical community, AMA, CDC, and your state medical certification board do agree with it or PP wouldn’t be able to give it to you…
I know you think that PP is evil but, let me tell you a little secret… There are NO evil people in this world. There are no good people in this world… Just people.
That’s right Hitler was not evil, he was crazy “and Christian I might add”. The religious extremists who crashed two of our planes into the World Trade Center and murdered thousands were not evil; they were just people who believed WAY to strongly in their religion, to the point of being murderous and suicidal.
Carla – No I am not a abortion doctor, I am however very close to quite a few people who have been helped by PP, “with a hell of a lot more things than just abortion” and who have in the past, and some who still do work for PP. As to why I spend so much energy on this site, it seems to me that the anti-choice movement seems to only live in a rightwing fish bowl, using the talking points given to you by the rest of the fish in said bowl. It is my heartfelt belief that religion has no place in politics or medicine. Religion is a personal choice and should stay in your private personal life, protected by the constitution, and not try to impose itself on others. This is a real problem for Christians as it is their mandate to spread the word of god by any means necessary to the whole world. To put it bluntly missionaries “and sidewalk counselors” should shut up, stay home, and mind their own business!
Biggz, seriously did you even read Jill’s original post? Neither she nor anyone else here is claiming that the study is about abortion. She actually just quoted one sentence from it to show that some understanding is beginning to lead into major medical journals in this country that there is indeed a link between abortion and subsequent premature birth. You would have to go to the other 114 studies to get the details.
Too busy slamming Christians again to pay any attention to details like that, I see.
Biggz, does it even matter which contributing factor has a stronger effect? Shouldn’t women be given all of the information so they can make a decision with all of the facts in front of them?
For example, I often counsel patients about their health. There are risk factors that cannot be avoided or changed, such as heredity/genetics, age, gender, ethnicity, etc. However, there are risk factors that can be avoided and changed, such as diet, exercise, not smoking, and so on. For some disease processes, the unchangable, unavoidable risks are far greater than the ones we have control over. Should I therefore NOT advise my patients to lower those risks they do have control over?
Briggz, What’s with all this talk about evil? Where in my post did I mention evil? I don’t know if you’ve had kids, if you did you would be aware of the whole slowly softening of the cervix phenomenon. If the body does it slowly, how respectful of the cervix is a 15 minutes abortion? Your own bias is stopping you from accepting a very real and logical consequence of abortion. There is a reason why we compare pro-choicers to the tobacco company that refused to accept a logical consequence of smoking and the damage done to the lungs.
Sydney – you should know that most abortions do not require the cervix to be widened anywhere near as much as an actual birth requires.
You wanna talk about a cervix being pried open… talk to my mom. I was born on a military base “Andersen AFB Guam” where my dad was sent after being injured in Cambodia. My mother is 4’11″and before I came along was 105lbs mostly in the chest area. I was born naturally, on time, and was 12lbs 9oz! “all the men in my mom’s family are huge, my grandfather could not afford a wedding band big enough to fit his finger” In order to be born naturally the doctor had to break my collar bone and my mom’s pelvic bone so my shoulders could be folded in half. Needless to say mom’s cervix never recovered completely, however even with my extreme birth 2 1/2 years later my mom gave birth to my sister though a c-section full term and on time. You should see the pictures of my mom in the 9th month with me lol she looked like a spider monkey who swallowed a beach ball so big its feet can’t touch the ground.
Biggz,
You need to study reproductive physiology. In natural birth the cervix opens on its own, it is not forced open. This is usually a gradual process, for some of us laboring mothers it takes hours, though of course it can be rapid as mothers who have delivered in cars can tell you.
How exactly did your mother’s cervix never completely heal? If your mother carried a child full term then its obvious her cervix recovered will enough to support a full term pregnancy, not something damaged cervixes are inclined to do, especially babies the size you describe.
Well like I said bones had to be broken because her cervix “and the rest of her body for that matter” could not handle a baby my size. My mother cervix was stretched much further than the body will naturally allow. Her cervix did what it was supposed to do it just wasn’t enough. The reason my sister had to be done c-section was a precautionary measure by the military doctors in fear of re-agitating the injuries my birth caused. My mother recovered after my birth but it took a while just for the bones to mend not to mention soft tissue damages. This is why my mother had her tubes tied after my sister “who was unexpected”.
Please don’t act like I am making up a story to make my point, this is my actual family history. I was a huge baby and as a man I am over 6’2” 300lbs and I can’t wear rings just like grandpa lol
“On a side note, in “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” they specifically say that past abortions will not impact future pregnancies. Thats so dishonest.”
I bought the 1996 edition of that book at a library booksale, and it left me with the impression that pregnancy is a depressing, stressful time. It’s not just that it addresses depressing and stressful feelings during pregnancy – it’s that it dwells on them to the extent that you’d think pregnancy was some type of horrible ordeal. Or at least the 1996 edition did, anyway.
Um, the title of this post is Induced abortion causes preterm births…
Not contributes to, or can lead to, or even can be linked to abortion. It says… Induced Abortion Causes Preterm Births, and then it sites this study that barely mentions abortion AT ALL!
READ THE POSTS TITLE NEXT TIME!
Biggz,
Its more likely bones had to be broken because a tiny woman was carrying a very large baby in a small pelvis, or a baby that was not in the normal head down position. It would have nothing to do with her cervix which was fully and naturally opened. Babies have come out with broken bones because of difficult births, as well as with cone shaped heads. I saw one baby with a broken femur.
I’m not surprised iyour mother had a section with your sister, in fact I’d be surprised if she didn’t. I’m sure after your difficult birth she was sore for a long time.
Biggz, where did I say you were making this up? Please don’t read what isn’t there. I just didn’t think you had certain details correct and that is what I was questioning.
Mary is right. It’s not the cervix that causes the problems, that is just tissue and muscle. It’s the bony parts that can cause that sort of problems.
Well Mary as you know I have been attacked on this site a lot “I know I am asking for it by voicing my opinion here lol” but I have never lied on these boards and sometimes I get the feeling that rather than actually acknowledge that I have a good or bad point its easier for some anti-choicers to just think I am a liar.
Thank You Mary for attacking my views and not my creditably, this is not always the case on this site when it comes to my point of view.
Thank you again =)
Carla – No I am not a abortion doctor, I am however very close to quite a few people who have been helped by PP, “with a hell of a lot more things than just abortion” and who have in the past, and some who still do work for PP. As to why I spend so much energy on this site, it seems to me that the anti-choice movement seems to only live in a rightwing fish bowl, using the talking points given to you by the rest of the fish in said bowl. It is my heartfelt belief that religion has no place in politics or medicine. Religion is a personal choice and should stay in your private personal life, protected by the constitution, and not try to impose itself on others. This is a real problem for Christians as it is their mandate to spread the word of god by any means necessary to the whole world. To put it bluntly missionaries “and sidewalk counselors” should shut up, stay home, and mind their own business!
I wish you much luck in your mission. We will not shut up, stay home or mind our own business.
If no one mentions religion again how does it stand to reason that an innocent preborn human being isn’t killed in an abortion??
I have been commenting here for nearly 3 years and a mod for 2. I have seen folks like you get fed up, cross the line, break the rules and be banned. So again I say to you, good luck.
Hi Elisabeth,
Its good to see you and thank you for the backup from an expert in the labor and delivery department!
Hi again Biggz,
It is you who has called me a liar though, about my abortion experience and the experience of my friends and their forced abortions.
Biggz,
My pleasure.
The problem, Biggz, is that when other people make valid points you either call them liars or ignore them altogether.
Case in point: you have yet to respond to my point above. Again I ask you: For some disease processes, the unchangable, unavoidable risks are far greater than the ones we have control over. Should I therefore NOT advise my patients to lower those risks they do have control over?
“It is my heartfelt belief that religion has no place in politics or medicine. Religion is a personal choice and should stay in your private personal life, protected by the constitution, and not try to impose itself on others”
Ok. This has nothing to do with the morality of abortion. I’m against abortion because it is unethical. I reached this conclusion through logical deduction that has nothing to do with my faith. Just as one can object to the murder of born humans for reasons other than religion, I object to the legalized murder of preborn humans. Try again.
Religion has no place in politics? Then the Quakers should never have organized against slavery and Dr.King should have never led a civil rights movement.
No place in medicine. So all those religious groups such as Catholic, Jewish, and Protestant should never have opened hospitals?
Without religion, there would likely BE no medicine. Almost all hospitals for centuries were either founded, run, or both, by religious orders.
Biggz, I said nothing about the post’s TITLE, just the post, which you had to read in its entirety to understand. In it Jill
1) linked to an article in which the abortion-premature birth link is mentioned briefly for perhaps almost the first time in a major medical journal, or I presume, at least by AJOG;
2) linked to material about 114 other studies that in fact give much more information about this link than the one journal was willing to admit to.
THEREFORE, Jill’s entire post, which was NOT just about ONE ARTICLE, but about a total of 115 articles, was quite rightly titled as it was.
Are you deliberately obtuse or something? Do you think you can win points by ignoring the obvious?
We’ve been pounding away at this for over a year:
http://uvalies.org/birthdefects.html
It should not escape the notice of anyone that I think Ohio State is one of those large PUBLICLY FUNDED universities in this country that has been doing abortions on their students IN HOUSE for years. Like UVA, they were very discreet about it. So as a leader in the OSU OB/GYN department, M. Iams is an abrtionist himself. So it should also come as no surprise that he will try to put as much of a candy coating on this as he can, and bury it in this article hoping people will not notice. Thanks again to Jill for finding what the authors did not want her to find. the FCAT is that Mr. Iams own OB/GYN department has been causing birth defects for many years now, and specifically keeping women in the dark about it. And you can bet they will continue to do so unless somebody confronts themy group is doing at UVA currently. Believe me when I tell you they are not at all happy wbout their dirty little secrets of medical misinformation becoming known to so many!
It is also interesting to note that a major study from Canada involving over 17,000 women was presented at the ACOG conference in May – yet the info below seems to have somehow been deleted from ACOG’s papers and website, or indeed never added at all. ACOG is another pro abortion organization, so this makes perfect sense. Biggz is probably one of them, or someone close to the abortion industry in some other way who profits from it. Biggz, seriously, if the science saying induced abortion does NOT cause preterm birth later in life, then tell us all here exactly how it is LESS convincing than the science that tells us that smoking causes lung cancer!
Go ahead. Make my day.
AAPLOG should remove itself from ACOG once and for all. This is just the most recent study ACOG has decided to keep women from knowing on behalf of their political agenda, and no – these are not numbers that show a “slight” increase!
“Dr. Ghislain Hardy and his team did a chart review of 17,916 women who delivered at Royal Victoria Hospital, McGill’s teaching hospital. Dr. Hardy’s team found that women with one past abortion were 45% more likely to give birth before 32 weeks, 71% more likely to do so at less than 28 weeks, and more than 50% more likely at less than 26 weeks. They noted that the link was even greater where the woman had more than one abortion.”
Littlez,
I no more impugned your intelligence than I did my own. I held out the many areas where I know abosolutely nothing and stated that my attempts at trying to function in these would be as disastrous as your attempts at critiquing science. The moral of the story is to stick with our strengths and learn from those of others.
Now your problem, and it’s a giant one, is that you can’t argue credibly. You constantly put words in people’s mouths, then beat them up for saying what they never said, then dare them to substantiate the words they never spoke! In short, you’re so busy thinking of what you want to say next that you don’t attend to what others are actually saying. Your listening skills are pretty lousy. Your note to me is a case in point.
The study never said that women should not have abortions. And none of us has claimed that the study said any such thing. The study showed the relative risk of preterm birth in subsequent pregnancies of women who have had abortions. AAPLOG stressed that relative risk increases of between 36%-90% are hardly “very small” as the article characterizes them.
What Jill is pointing to is the attempted whitewashing of the data’s significance by the author. If you would have suspended your impetuous impulse to prove everyone as being both wrong and twisted, you would have seen the data and their presentation in the manner in which they were truly put forth.
I don’t think you, or anyone, as stupid for not being scientifically literate Littlez. We all have our area of specialty, praise God.
I think of you as an arrogant jerk for your constant attempts to suggest that my scientific objectivity is clouded by my faith, when you are scientifically (and theologically) illiterate in the first place. It would be like me watching an electrician at work and telling him he doesn’t know what he’s doing, when I couldn’t tell an anode from a cathode in a battery.
Now, to end with a little self-deprecating humor. A few years ago I decided to be more of a regular guy and change the spark plugs in our Toyota Sienna. I ended up undoing three fuel injectors, had gasoline running all over the place, and by the grace of God didn’t ignite myself and the van. Lesson learned the hard way, as my wife sat and couldn’t catch her breath from laughing so hard. :-( My mechanic came up to the house to put things back together, turned to me and said, “You’d better be a better doctor than you are a mechanic or your laboratory is going to be in a world of $h!t”
I don’t know much, but what I do know, I know pretty well.
Biggz….well shame on you you big hypocrite (pun intended). How DARE you harm your mother’s body while being born? She obviously should have had you ripped limb from limb to spare herself since she was of more importance than you were in your parasitic baby phase. I mean, according to the vile logic you spew here women should never inconvenience themselves or suffer in any way for their children. So why was your mother so very long-suffering towards you? She experienced great pain it sounds like, just so you could have life. And now you come here with your word vomit and disdain other women who acclaim it. You’re just a male chauvinist!
“Um, the title of this post is Induced abortion causes preterm births…Not contributes to, or can lead to, or even can be linked to abortion.”
Okay Littlez,
School’s in session. When a behavior, event, procedure is associated with a percentage increase in sequellae, then those sequellae in the percentage increase are caused by the behavior, event, procedure.
If Jill posted an article on the new fad of people going out in thunderstorms and holding lightning rods, and if the article noted a 90% increase in lightning strike electrocutions since the beginning of the fad, and that the increased number of people electrocuted in thunderstorms indeed carried lightning rods, then she would be entirely accurate in using a headline that says “Holding lightning rod in thunderstorm leads to lightning strike electrocution.”
Again, you castigate scientifically trained people for functioning in accord with their scientific education. Now, that’s comes from one or more of a few places:
1. Insanity
2. Pugnacity
3. Ignorance
Sydney M.,
Well said!
Dr. Gerard–LOVED your Toyota Sienna story. I laughed reading it.
Yes, Dr. Nadal….I laughed how you have a swagger wagon! Work it!