The deVeber Institute
for Bioethics and Social Research

The deVeber Institute commends Barbara Kay for highlighting the abortion issue that we shouldn't be ignoring in this week's National Post article: 

The Abortion Issue We're Ignoring

Increasing amounts of research, which the deVeber Institute is documenting, is dispelling any doubt that a previous induced abortion increases a woman's risk of having a preterm birth in a subsequent pregnancy.

If a woman has a surgical abortion, does she increase her future risk of a premature delivery or, more importantly, does she boost her later odds of a very preterm birth (under 33 weeks' gestation)?  Preterm newborn children have a higher risk of the 'MACE' disorders (Mental retardation, Autism, Cerebral palsy, Epilepsy) and other risks (blindness, deafness, lung injury, 'gut' problems, serious infections, etc.).

The average doctor can not be expected to keep track of the over 130 published studies of the abortion-preemie risk, but he/she can read abortion-preemie extensive review studies.  In the 21^st century there have been three such studies.

A new German study, which analysed 1 065 202 pregnancies, revealed that

"Previous interruptions, miscarriages and IUFD are relevant risk factors for prematurity and are related with low birth weight of the new borns."

The Canadian Institute for Health Information recently released a report "Too Early, Too Small:  A Profile of Small Babies Across Canada." 

Dr. L.L. deVeber M.D. FRCP(C) questioned:

"I wonder if the Canadian Institute for Health Information looked at the effect of previous induced abortions in their study, since it is well established by many reported studies that the incidence of very low birth weight babies is increased four-fold following induced abortion."

In fact, the report did not mention previous induced abortions.

However, a recent review by Deirdre J. Murphy, MD MRCOG, "Epidemiology and environmental factors in preterm labour," stated:

"Induced abortion has been associated with very preterm delivery (<33 weeks) in the French regional EPIPAGE study (OR 1.5, 95% CU 1.1-2.0)[27] and this was confirmed by the International EUROPOP study across ten European countries.  The strength of association increased with decreasing gestational age and was consistent across countries with varying rates of induced abortions."

See Murphy's full review attached to this post.