The Maternal Mortality Lie

The scene was intense: The mother, who didn’t receive an epidural, was in pain, sweating and screaming as I watched her newborn child rapidly enter the world. This baby girl, a mess of wet brown hair, chubby cheeks, and wriggling limbs, arrived with a loud cry.

The atmosphere in the room changed immediately. The nurses offered congratulations, the OB-GYN offered words of wisdom to the father, and the mother’s face was enveloped in a beatific smile, immediately replacing her prior distress, as she reached her arms out to embrace her daughter.

I was hooked.

Over the course of my career, I’ve delivered over 5,000 babies.

I was originally drawn to medicine by my love of children and entered medical school wanting to become a pediatrician. However, the miracle of birth enchanted and overwhelmed me, starting me on my 30-plus-year path as an OB-GYN.

I love caring for pregnant women and their unborn children, easing a new mom’s fears while guiding her through pregnancy. Over the course of my career, I’ve delivered over 5,000 babies. The joyful delight expressed by families with each new child’s arrival has shown me why the birth of a child is one of life’s greatest gifts.

This is why I’m concerned to watch a deceptive narrative grow. One that’s causing many women to fear childbirth, sometimes avoiding or even ending a pregnancy, and depriving themselves of the joy of motherhood.

It’s the maternal mortality panic.

What is Maternal Mortality?

Maternal mortality is broadly defined as a “pregnancy-related death,” or, the death of a woman while pregnant or within one year of the end of pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management.

There’s no doubt maternal mortality in the U.S. is a tragic and serious problem, and one that requires real answers. However, the current narrative is woefully incomplete. It’s rooted in panic and fearmongering, pointing women to “solutions” that don’t address the real problem.

Some of my own patients have told me they’re afraid to have children because they heard childbirth is extremely dangerous.

After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade following the Dobbs decision in 2022, abortion advocates threatened maternal mortality would go up, attempting to connect any rise to pro-life laws. Fast forward to the 2024 presidential election, and we saw Vice President Kamala Harris frequently blame maternal deaths on pro-life laws.

For many women, especially those in high-risk groups such as Black women, abortion has been promoted as a way to protect themselves from such a tragic death.

Some of my own patients have told me they’re afraid to have children because they heard childbirth is extremely dangerous.

Myth VS. Fact: Debunking Claims About Maternal Mortality

Abortion activists in the U.S. promote two major false claims about maternal mortality: 1. The Dobbs decision directly increases maternal mortality, and 2. Abortion is safer than childbirth.

When abortion advocates say pro-life laws cause maternal mortality, they oversimplify a complex problem with zero evidence. They claim OB-GYNs can’t provide quality care in pro-life states. However, every pro-life law protects the life of the mother and allows for timely, necessary care for pregnant women in a medical emergency.

A look abroad shows there’s no correlation between pro-life laws and maternal mortality. Take Poland and Malta, for example: Both have strict pro-life laws and both have maintained low maternal mortality. But some pro-abortion countries, like Guyana and South Africa, have very high maternal mortality. The reality is the U.S. has had poor maternal mortality for decades, well before the Dobbs decision.

While the COVID-19 pandemic drove maternal mortality to record highs, those numbers subsequently dropped and, since the Dobbs decision, remained relatively consistent.

A woman is at least three times as likely to die from any cause in the year following abortion than after childbirth.

But now the tide is turning. This year, the CDC released their 2024 report showing a drop in maternal mortality. This good news received coverage from only a handful of mainstream outlets. Had the data showed an increase in maternal mortality, media coverage would’ve been nonstop.

The “abortion is safer than childbirth” claim has been a go-to for abortion advocates despite being based on debunked research. This year, a new study even claimed abortion is over 44 times less likely to cause a maternal death than childbirth. However, it ignored known data deficiencies and that the CDC fails to detect many deaths related to abortion. In fact, a former CDC director even criticized the abortion/childbirth comparison as “inappropriate.”

The truth is studies (from countries with better data than us) show that a woman is at least three times as likely to die from any cause in the year following abortion than after childbirth. Mental health-related deaths following abortion are even higher, occurring up to six times as often compared to giving birth.

So, what are the true causes and risks of maternal mortality?

Causes And Risk Factors of Maternal Mortality

There are many complex factors that contribute to maternal mortality, such as obesity, chronic illness, access to quality health care, and mental health or substance abuse disorders. The public assumes the leading cause of maternal mortality is catastrophic events at birth, such as hemorrhage or sepsis. In reality, deaths during childbirth are falling because hospitals have enhanced their protocols, and thus improved emergency responses.

Cardiovascular conditions are the most common physical cause of maternal mortality. Many of these instances stem from poor pre-pregnancy health, including obesity, diabetes, and hypertension.

Tragically, mental health causes account for nearly a quarter of all maternal deaths. These are “deaths of despair” such as suicide, substance overdose, and others.

By improving medical care for women with high-risk conditions and ensuring social support to address the lack of stable support systems, we can decrease the risk factors leading to maternal mortality.

Abortion Isn’t Health Care

Despite abortion advocates’ claims, more abortions won’t “improve” maternal mortality.

Dr. Monique Wubbenhorst, in her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, asked: “If abortion is health care, my question is: What disease are you treating?” While some researchers have tried to argue that pregnancy is a disease, we know pregnancy is a normal, healthy biological process that shows a woman’s body is functioning properly.

Calling pregnancy a disease is an insult to every woman who has carried a child.

Abortion, on the other hand, isn’t health care, and it carries significant risks for women. For example, women whose first pregnancy ends in abortion are more likely to experience increases in both outpatient and inpatient mental health treatment compared to those who had a live birth. Uterine damage from surgical abortion may cause problems in future pregnancies or preterm delivery. Severe complications may lead to infertility.

A drug-induced abortion, using mifepristone and misoprostol, is associated with frequent complications, requiring surgery to complete failed abortions in approximately one in 20 women. Overall, complications occur four times more after abortion drugs than surgical abortions.

The reality is more than 96% of abortions are performed for social, financial, and other undefined reasons, on healthy mothers carrying healthy babies.

How You Can Lower Your Risk Of Maternal Mortality

For women who are concerned about maternal mortality, I implore you to not be misled by the fearmongering. Pregnancy-associated death is extraordinarily rare when moms receive proper prenatal care. There are also practical ways you can lower the risk of maternal mortality, while improving overall health.

First, focus on your physical health and become as healthy as possible when you are considering pregnancy. You should prioritize regular exercise, eat a nutritious diet, and start taking prenatal vitamins. This will help minimize your risk of complications.

If you have a chronic medical condition, discuss your fertility desires with your primary care provider, optimize control of these conditions, and ensure that your medications can be safely used in pregnancy. During pregnancy, you may be referred to a maternal fetal medicine specialist, an OB-GYN with additional training caring for high-risk pregnancies, who will provide recommendations to your OB-GYN to optimize outcomes for you and your baby.

Pregnancy-associated death is extraordinarily rare when moms receive proper prenatal care.

Second, many American women are afflicted with mental health concerns. If you feel overwhelmed with anxiety or depression, seek the support of your family, friends, and spiritual mentors, as well as the attention of a mental health professional throughout pregnancy and postpartum.

Lastly, find an OB-GYN or health care provider who listens to your concerns and has you and your child’s well-being in mind. Our job is to care for both patients, mother and child. Many of us have given birth ourselves and understand the physical discomfort and concerns unique to all new mothers. We want to be your partner in this experience, and we have dedicated our lives to obtaining the skills necessary to guide you and your child through this experience.

Women Deserve The Truth

Motherhood is a transcendent experience, but for many women, the journey to motherhood may feel like forging ahead into the great unknown. This is why women deserve the truth about pregnancy, childbirth, and the risk of maternal mortality, not fearmongering motivated by abortion advocates. By looking past the noise and embracing the facts, women can confidently approach motherhood with the strength and resilience they already hold and enter one of the greatest joys they will ever know.