#71 The effect of abortions on subsequent pregnancies (English)

Did you ever wonder whether abortions increase the risk of difficulties in subsequent pregnancies? Well, scientists claim abortion isn't thought to be directly linked to major fertility issues or complications in following pregnancies. Furthermore, it is argued that factors such as living conditions, poverty, economic state/development and level of hygiene largely impact birth rates thus modifying results.  However, researchers do suggest a certain tendency between abortion and an increased risk of:

Premature birth / Low birth weight:

Indeed, a study published in the medical journal Human Reproduction, found that women who had three or more abortions were up to three times more likely to have a future baby prematurely – even before 28 weeks in the womb – and of a poor weight. Such a phenomenon is extremely dangerous for the infant whom must be given much medical attention to ensure survival.

Cervix damage hence vaginal bleeding during early pregnancy :

There are two types of abortions; a medical and a surgical one. A medical abortion requires the woman to take medication during the early stage of pregnancy in order to abort the fetus whilst a surgical abortion typically involves a vacuum device or a 'curet' (a spoon-shaped instrument with a sharp edge) used to extract the fetus from a woman's uterus. In some cases, surgical abortions are known to weaken and damage the cervix or uterus quite significantly, leading to the potential for the cervix to open prematurely and abnormal bleeding in a subsequent pregnancy. Although these consequences are rare, woman who have had multiple surgical abortions are most likely to endure such outcomes in which serious damage may even demand high level surgery to be corrected.

Researchers are currently turned towards Denmark (who maintains a national registry with information on abortion and subsequent pregnancies) and results have shown the rates of ectopic pregnancy in subsequent pregnancies were 2.4 percent for medical abortion and 2.3 percent for surgical abortion. The rate of miscarriage was 12.2 percent for the medical abortion group and 12.7 percent for the surgical group.

In conclusion, although these statistics reamain relatively low, and focused on short term side-effects of abortion, these negative outcomes do exist and women should know that there are ineed a positive correlation between the number of abortions and the risks of difficulties in subsequent pregnancies.

 
SAG