New Tulane study connects abortion, maternal health care access with birth outcomes

NEW ORLEANS — A study published last week by Tulane University researchers found that people living in areas lacking both abortion and maternity health care were more likely to give birth prematurely than those with more reproductive health services.

While previous studies have documented adverse birth outcomes for those who live far from abortion clinics or obstetric care, the new study looks at those two measures in conjunction with each other, said Maeve Wallace, an epidemiologist at Tulane and one of the study’s authors.

The researchers mapped the locations of all live U.S. births that occurred in 2020 by county. They classified each county by having full reproductive care, some reproductive care, or no reproductive care. They found that people without access to reproductive health care were 10% more likely to experience preterm birth than people with greater access to care.

In Louisiana, though, researchers found that people in parishes with full access to reproductive care and no access to reproductive care both experienced preterm birth about 14% of the time, compared to 12% for those living in parishes with some access to care.

Read more: https://lailluminator.com/2023/11/22/abortion-access/