A law that prohibits abortion after five weeks of pregnancy in Texas (USA) caused more than 9,000 additional deliveries in the southern state, according to a scientific study published today.
The report, the first to give an account of the impact of the criminalization of abortion in the number of births in the US, he points out that between April and December 2022 there were an additional 9,799 births in Texas.
The findings of this study, conducted by researchers at the John Hopkins University, reveal how restrictions on abortion “have real consequences for pregnant people, many of whom have no choice but to carry an unwanted or risky pregnancy to term,” Suzannae Bell, one of the study authors, said in a statement.
Since the US Supreme Court returned the power to the states to decide on the legality of abortion, a year ago, researchers warned that the number of births would increase in areas where this procedure is restricted, stressed the release.
To reach the conclusions of this study, the authors used a statistical model to calculate that, under conditions prior to the criminalization of abortion in the state, a total of 287,280 births would have been reported between April and December 2022.