The conversation
Infant mortality has increased in the states that promulgated more hard restrictions to abortion since in 2022 the Supreme Court would annul the ruling of Roe v. Wade. The increase includes newborns (less than one day), as well as older babies (from 1 month to 1 year).
In addition, states with new restrictions that include exceptions for health reasons – which allow abortion to save the mother’s life or in case of fetal anomaly incompatible with life – experience a similar increase in children’s deaths.
These are the key conclusions of our August 2025 study, published in the scientific journal American Journal of Public Health.
For our research, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was collected in order to determine how many babies died in each state between 2018 and 2023.
Next, we analyzed the changes in the number of children’s deaths before a state introduced new abortion restrictions and then contrasting those changes with the states that had not applied new limits.
On average, states with abortion restrictions implemented after the decision of the Supreme Court registered a 7.2% increase in children’s deaths, which is equivalent to some additional deaths per year in children up to 1 year old. These deaths did not happen exclusively among newborns on their first day of life. On the other hand, much of the disparity concentrated among infants from 1 month to 1 year, who suffered an increase of 9.3% in excess deaths.
We do not observe any significant change in the number of children’s deaths when state legislatures included sanitary exceptions for the mother or fetus. In other words, our data showed that, despite these exceptions, children’s deaths increased at the same rate as in states without exceptions.
Why is it important?
Three years after the Supreme Court revoked the sentence, the panorama of the right to abortion in the United States remains a controversial land.
Indeed, the sentence returned control of abortion regulation to states. Since then, legislators of more than 20 states have imposed abortion restrictions that would not have been permissible under Roe v. Wade.
However, other states have taken measures to protect access to this procedure, including Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana and New York.
In this fragmented legal environment, we and others are working to rigorously examine the results in public health, so that politicians, legislators and voters can make informed decisions.
This analysis did not start with us. For example, previous researchers discovered that children’s deaths in Texas increased almost 13% after the approval of the Draft 8 of the Texas Senate in 2021. Our article suggests that the Texas study was not a coincidence. The same pattern is repeated nationwide in the states that promulgated abortion restrictions after the revocation of Roe.
The lack of significant differences in the number of children’s deaths in the states where abortion restrictions have exceptions for health reasons also suggests that medical professionals may not be sure when they can benefit from these exceptions when treating their patients. And so that the exceptions for health reasons have the desired effect, state legislatures must define what is understood as “serious risk” and “irreversible disability”, as well as other general terms that are included in said legislation.
What is still unknown
Although our study makes it clear that infant mortality has increased in states that restrict abortion, more research is needed to precisely explain how restrictions contributed to these deaths.
In fact, our article concludes that the increase in mortality was not only due to perinatal or congenital problems and at the time of birth. There were also increases in the general category of “other causes” that can affect babies up to two years of life. This ambiguity increases the mystery around how exactly, abortion restrictions put babies at risk.
In addition, due to data availability, we have little information about how the mosaic of abortion laws is affecting people from different groups, such as race and socioeconomic class.
It is likely that economic approaches are needed, as well as public health, to address a problem that is reaching tragic proportions.
