New data shows rise in infant mortality after Dobbs

Preliminary research shows that abortion bans have led to increase in deaths involving fetal abnormalities.

Preliminary research indicates that infant mortalities increased in the months and years that followed the Dobbs decision–something that the expert behind the study correlates with pregnancies continuing despite being diagnosed with fetal abnormalities. 

At this point, the story has been all over the news and in other newsletters. However, I still had the chance to speak to the researcher behind the study, Dr. Parvati Singh, so I thought I’d relay what she told me, along with some of her key findings and plans for the data analysis going forward. 

“There are no months after the Dobbs decision that infant mortality actually declined below expected values,” Singh said. “And so for this pattern of increase that we are seeing, perhaps in consideration of future policymaking, taking into account these, these types of potential consequences, could be helpful.” 

The researchers examined US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data that estimated live births and infant deaths between 2018 and 2023. They examined two aspects of that data: overall mortality and those associated with congenital abnormality. 

Singh and the other authors behind the letter that was published in Jama Pediatrics said that the restrictions in abortion states were the likely reason that led to the increase. 

“Especially because a lot of the restrictions that happened in extremely restrictive states after Dobbs did not include any exceptions for maternal or fetal indications, which would then suggest that there would be a pregnancy that would be carried to term despite having a fetus that is incompatible with life,” Singh said. 

Singh couldn’t provide details on the qualitative aspects of those infant deaths because it was a quantitative study. She suggested that this was a future avenue for research. Additionally, some of the more detailed data from the CDC will come out in the coming years, giving greater breakdowns of information associated with infant mortality. 

“The national aggregate data are reported promptly by the CDC, but the individual level data files usually take one, one and a half or a two-year lag to be released because they have to undergo several data checks,” Singh said.

“So once those data are available to us, that would be the obvious next step.”