Researchers at Tel Aviv University found that women who have just one abortion are more likely to have complications in other pregnancies. The Daily Mail reports that even though most scientists agree that women who have numerous abortions are at greater risk for experiencing pregnancy complications, the new study shows that just one abortion can lead to problems in the future.
In fact, the study found that women who have one abortion during the first trimester are 30% more likely to have complications such as pre-term birth, vaginal bleeding, low birth weight and placenta complications with future pregnancies. Additionally, the study found that these women face higher rates of induced labor, retained placenta after delivery and caesarean sections. The results from the study were published in the Journal of Maternal Fetal and Neonatal Medicine.
Dr Liran Hiersch conducted the research at Rabin Medical Center in Israel, and for his study he analyzed 15,000 deliveries over the last five years. Dr. Hiersch’s research team compared pregnancy outcomes of women who’ve had first trimester abortions with those who have never aborted. Women who had histories or multiple abortions or miscarriages, had complications during pregnancy or a history of multiple births did not participate in the study.
Although the results of Dr. Hiersch’s study were significant, he did say that one past abortion did not affect a woman’s chances of getting pregnant in the future.
He explained, “In most cases it has no effect on future fertility or pregnancy outcome. In addition, although we found that a single early pregnancy loss was associated with an increased risk for subsequent adverse pregnancy outcome, the effect was mild. Our findings should be taken into account together with other parameters when assessing the risk for adverse outcome. We hope this study will be incorporated in the usual risk assessments. Doctors should know there is another element to factor in when assisting a woman before labour.”
Tragically, abortion definitely can contribute to infertility in women because the procedure sometimes causes infections or leaves scar tissue. As LifeNews previously reported, the Mayo Clinic acknowledges that complications from an abortion can cause infertility in some cases. Also, studies in other countries have found that abortion is linked to cervical incompetence, which can lead to preterm birth.
Here’s more about abortions effect on future pregnancies:
Caesarean deliveries were performed for 25 per cent of women with a prior terminated pregnancy, compared with 18 per cent of the other women.
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Retained placenta after birth – where the placenta fails to deliver – occurred with about seven per cent of women who had a history of miscarriage or abortion, compared with roughly five per cent of the other women.
But extensive bleeding, a serious side effect of the placenta failing to emerge after the baby, was rare and happened in roughly three per cent of the deliveries regardless of the women’s prior pregnancy history. The researchers note that previous studies exploring the effect of a single pregnancy loss on future outcomes were based on incorrect assumptions. Past research compared outcomes between women who never gave birth before with those whose first pregnancy ended in a normal delivery, the researchers at Tel Aviv said.
Dr Liran Hiersch, who assessed only those women who delivered their first infants and compared them with those who had only one or no pregnancy loss in their past, said: ‘A history of normal pregnancy is considered protective from adverse outcomes, so this group already had an advantage over those who had pregnancy loss in their past.
This, I believe, was the main advantage of the methodology of our study in comparison to previous reports.’ Dr Hiersch said it is important to emphasise that a single pregnancy loss is a ‘very common event’ during a woman’s reproductive years.
