By CatholicVote | Created at 2025-03-03 23:16:02 | Updated at 2025-03-04 04:35:47
5 hours ago
CV NEWS FEED // Pro-life legislation enacted in several states after the Supreme Court’s June 2022 Dobbs decision has saved the lives of more than 22,000 babies, a new study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) discovered.
The study found that 22,180 “excess births,” referring to the number of anticipated versus actual births, have occurred since June 2022 in states that either have near-total protections for unborn lives or protections for life after six weeks of pregnancy, the Washington Stand reported.
Speaking to the “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” show, pro-life scholar and professor at the Catholic University of America Michael New unpacked the implications of the study. He called it significant that JAMA, “a secular … fairly liberal academic journal,” published the study’s report, as “they’re not going to go out of their way to highlight the impact of pro-life laws.”
New noted that while it’s hard to tell if pro-life laws reduce the number of abortions specifically, as women can go out of state or even out of the country to obtain them, counting births is much easier and more concrete.
“[I]f we see an increase in babies being born in states that enact pro-life laws, that’s very powerful statistical evidence that these pro-life laws are saving lives,” he said, according to the Washington Stand.
He also clarified one of the study’s findings, which noted that infant mortality rates increased 6% higher than expected. According to New, the report misrepresented the data.
“[I]f you take a look at the longer data that we have on infant mortality that goes into the second quarter of 2024, you actually see a decrease — they cut the data point off,” he said. “So if you look at the longer term trends in infant mortality, you do actually see a long term decrease.
New pointed out that since Dobbs, there has also been an overall nationwide decrease in maternal mortality as well as infant mortality, signifying that the outcomes of Dobbs were not as some predicted.
>>CDC: Maternal mortality rate falls year after states pass pro-life legislation<<
New additionally contested an argument, which did not appear in the report, that abortion is beneficial for public health. He emphasized that pro-life laws are for the protection of both the mother and the child and provided possible reasons for a slight increase in infant mortality.
“I think when you do see an increase in infant mortality, in some cases it’s because there’s more children born with congenital defects. That’s certainly a difficult situation, but you have to remember that the pro-life laws aren’t causing those defects, they’re protecting those children,” he said. “So instead of facing a ruthless, horrible death because of an abortion, they’re at least living out the natural course of their life and dying a natural death.”
Mary Szoch, the director of the Center for Human Dignity at Family Research Council, celebrated the study’s findings and the thousands of babies saved by pro-life legislation.
“Think of the lives those sweet little ones will impact and the joy they will bring!” she said, according to the Washington Stand. “No one can imagine the potential that every single human being has — in saving these babies, these pro-life laws have completely changed the future of America for the better. Praise God!”
