Commonly cited statistics on the mortality risk of pregnancy when compared to abortion in the U.S. are a vast undercount, according to a study in JAMA Network Open led by researchers at the University of Maryland and Brown University.

Amid national discussions of the importance of abortion access for maternal health, the goal of the study was to estimate risks using updated data to provide accurate information that could help inform decisions by patients, clinicians and policymakers.

"It is widely understood by scientists that continuing a pregnancy carries a much higher risk of death than having an abortion," said lead study author Maria Steenland, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland's School of Public Health. "Our new analysis shows that it is far more dangerous to be pregnant than to have an abortion, and this gap in mortality risk is even larger than previously recognized."

The findings suggest that abortion bans force pregnant people who otherwise would have sought abortion care to take on the substantially increased health risks associated with continued pregnancy, the researchers noted, including hemorrhage and high blood pressure.


ICD-10 Code Definitions of Pregnancy-Related Deaths Used in This Study. Credit: JAMA Network Open (2026). DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.54793

"Our findings underscore how dangerous abortion bans are for pregnant people: forcing someone to continue a pregnancy puts them at a dramatically higher risk of death--along with so many other harms," said study author Dr. Benjamin Brown, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Brown University's Warren Alpert Medical School. "The data also highlight the urgent need to lower mortality rates for all pregnant, birthing and postpartum people."

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