Related Issue
Fall 2026
Medicine & Health
Risk of Pregnancy
Abortion bans pose significant risks to pregnant women
By Corrie Pikul / Fall 2026
September 1st, 2026
The risks of pregnancy have been misunderstood and even underestimated, according to a study led by researchers at Brown and the University of Maryland. Published in the JAMA Network Open, the study found that the risk of dying from pregnancy or childbirth is 44 to 70 times higher than the risk of dying from an abortion—a gap that’s three times wider than previously estimated.
“Our findings underscore how dangerous abortion bans are for pregnant people,” said study author Dr. Benjamin Brown, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School. “Forcing someone to continue a pregnancy puts them at a dramatically higher risk of death—along with so many other harms.”
Those heightened health risks include hemorrhage and high blood pressure, complications from chronic heart and kidney disease, and increased susceptibility to various infections.
“Ours is one of countless studies that demonstrate that when patients are denied access to abortion care, they face higher biomedical risks,” Brown said. “It’s devastating to know that, in many places, my colleagues are barred by law
from providing standard-of-care treatments.”
A practicing ob-gyn in Rhode Island, Brown is “grateful to be in a state where I can provide full-spectrum care, based on the best available evidence and the needs of the individual patient.” However, he saw the impact of restrictive care policies firsthand during his residency and fellowship at the University of Chicago’s medical center.
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“Every clinic session, we were likely to see patients who came to us from other states, [where] they could not access care: Indiana, Wisconsin, Missouri, Iowa. I heard from those patients about how hard it was to take time off of work, to find transportation, to find childcare, to find a place to stay,” he said. “But I also heard how it was essential for them to be able to access the abortion care that our team could provide.”
The Risk Gap
Prior to the publication of the study’s findings, the commonly cited statistic was that childbirth was roughly 14 times riskier than abortion. However, that was based on outdated data collected from 1998 to 2005. Because maternal mortality rates have risen significantly over the past two decades while abortion care has actually become safer due to earlier access, that old statistic has become obsolete.
To update those numbers, lead study author Maria Steenland, an assistant professor at the
University of Maryland’s School of Public Health, partnered with Dr. Brown. Analyzing data from 2018 to 2021, their team found an annual average of 32.3 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, peaking at 43.9 in 2021.
“Our new analysis shows that the gap in mortality risk is even larger than previously recognized,” Steenland said. She hopes the research “will bring about policy changes that re-expand access to abortion, as well as to equitable, person-centered prenatal, birth, and postpartum care.”
Crucially, the study defined pregnancy-related deaths as occurring during pregnancy or within one year postpartum. Many people assume that once the baby is born, the danger is over, but Dr. Brown calls this a dangerous misconception.
“Our findings underscore how dangerous abortion bans are for pregnant people”
“We sometimes think of pregnancy as a physiologic stress test,” Brown said. “In other words, pregnancy itself is a challenge to the human body, but it can also unmask or reveal other diagnoses and conditions. Because it comes with such monumental transitions, the postpartum period can be a high-risk time for people. Blood clots such as deep vein thromboses, for example, are actually more common in the postpartum period than at any point in pregnancy.”
He stresses that ongoing care throughout the entire 12-month window is vital to catching these delayed, life-threatening complications.
Pregnancy Checkboxes
The dramatic shift in numbers comes down to better data collection. In 2003, a pregnancy checkbox was added to death certificates. When fully implemented in 2018, it fixed historical undercounting but introduced a new issue: potential overcounting due to misclassification.
To calculate an accurate death rate, the team analyzed birth and death records from the U.S. National Vital Statistics System, abortion-related deaths from the Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System, and abortion volume data from the Guttmacher Institute.
To mitigate potential overcounting, the researchers used a strict, conservative approach. They removed nonspecific causes of death and excluded deaths due to Covid-19, miscarriages, or
self-induced abortions. This ensured that their final numbers reflected an undeniable reality rather than administrative errors.
“People deserve access to updated information about the comparative risks and policies that reflect those realities,” said study author Marie Thoma, a reproductive and perinatal epidemiologist and an associate professor at the University of Maryland.
Ultimately, Dr. Brown hopes these concrete numbers will protect both patients and providers. While public conversations about birth equity have made patients more broadly aware of basic pregnancy risks—which are routinely worsened by systemic issues such as racism and classism—having exact numbers fundamentally changes the conversation. It allows clinicians to provide truly transparent, “person-centered, evidence-based” counseling.
“I think patients find value in being able to put numbers to the outcomes we are discussing, and I know that I find that valuable as a provider, as well,” Brown said. “Good research about abortion access and pregnancy health is how I can help support the next generation of patients and caregivers.”
