Abortion Raises Risk of Miscarriage of Subsequent Pregnancy 60

Percent

http://www.lifenews.com/nat2806.html

by Steven Ertelt

LifeNews.com Editor

December 5, 2006

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A team of British doctors has

released the results of a new study showing that women who have

an abortion run a higher risk of having a miscarriage in a

subsequent pregnancy. The study also showed that women using

in-vitro fertilization have higher miscarriage risks as well.

The doctors, affiliated with the London School of Hygiene and

Tropical Medicine, said the reasons behind the increased

miscarriage risk were vague.

However, they confirmed that women who had had a previous

abortion experienced a 60 percent higher risk of having a

miscarriage in another pregnancy.

Women using the in-vitro technique had a 40 percent greater risk

of suffering a miscarriage.

In the study, Dr. Noreen Maconochie examined data from 603 women

between the ages of 18 and 55 who had experienced a miscarriage

during the first 13 weeks of their pregnancy. They compared those

results with 6,116 women whose pregnancies advanced beyond 13

weeks.

The team published their findings in the British Journal of

Gynecology.

This isn't the first study to show that abortions adversely

affect a woman's fertility as other research shows that abortion

can lead to infertility by increasing the risk of miscarriages.

A 1986 report in the medical journal Epidemiology reveals women

with a history of abortion have a greater risk of fetal loss than

women who had no previous abortions. Women with two prior

pregnancies carried to term and no abortions had the lowest risk,

while women with two prior abortions had the highest risk.

Meanwhile, a 1991 British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology

article revealed that women with a history of abortion had a

1.5-1.7 times higher risk of ectopic pregnancy than women who had

previously carried a pregnancy to term.