After Republican-led states put in place abortion bans and restrictions following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, infant death has significantly increased, a new study published Monday shows.
The report was published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics by researchers at the Ohio State University College of Public Health. The study compared infant mortality before the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that overturned Roe and in the months after. They found that deaths were up about 7%, resulting in an average of 247 more infant deaths each month.
The researchers attributed most of those deaths to congenital anomalies, which are birth defects that occur prenatally.