Pregnant women have better health outcomes in Ireland and Northern Ireland, where the laws on abortion are 
very restrictive compared with women in Britain, where it is freely available, according to a new study.
The study [1], published in the summer issue of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons compared national health data over a period of 40 years.
Researchers Byron C. Calhoun, M.D., of West Virginia University-Charleston, John M. Thorp, M.D., of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Patrick Carroll, M.A., of Britain’s Pension and Population Research Institute (PAPRI) examined maternal mortality, stillbirth rates, and preterm births.
The authors calculate total abortion rates (TARs), analogous to total fertility rates (TFRs), of 0.13 for the Republic and 0.09 for Northern Ireland in 2011, compared with 0.52 for England and Wales, 0.36 for Scotland, and 0.6 for Sweden.
About one-third of English women are likely to have an abortion, compared with less than one-tenth of Irish women, the study shows.
Since 1968, maternal mortality has declined much more steeply in Ireland than in Great Britain. In the last decade, the article reports maternal mortality of 3 per 100,000 in the Republic of Ireland compared with 6 per 100,000 in England and Wales.
A history of prior induced abortion is associated with preterm birth and low birth weight, which are in turn associated with a higher rate of cerebral palsy.
The authors find that these indicators of neonatal health are also more favorable in the Irish jurisdictions.
“Over the 40 years of legalised abortion in the UK there has been a consistent pattern in which higher abortion rates have run parallel to higher incidence of stillbirths, premature births, low birth-weight neonates, cerebral palsy, and maternal deaths,” the authors conclude.
“In contrast, both Irish jurisdictions consistently display lower rates of all morbidities and mortality associated with legalised abortion.”
“Women, women’s health policy advocates, and national health systems ought to take careful note,” they state.
The study found that Ireland had a stillbirth rate in 2010 of 3.8/1,000 live births compared 5.1/1,000 live births in Great Britain; and a premature birth rate in 2010 of 42.7/1,000 live births compared with 48/1,000 in England and Wales and 72/1,000 in Scotland.