Nearly 10,000 babies have been born in Texas as a result of its heartbeat law, a new study by Johns Hopkins researchers suggests.
The results of the study, published Thursday in the medical journal JAMA, add to growing evidence that pro-life laws are saving tens of thousands of lives. Researchers said Texas saw 9,799 more births between April and December 2022 after the law went into effect.
“Although our study doesn’t detail why these extra births occurred, our findings strongly suggest that a considerable number of pregnant individuals in Texas were unable to overcome barriers to abortion access,” said Alison Gemmill, PhD, assistant professor in the Bloomberg School’s Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health and a lead author of the study.
In September 2021, Texas became the first state since 1973 that the courts allowed to enforce a pre-viability abortion ban. So, for about 10 months prior to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the state enforced its heartbeat law, which bans elective abortions once an unborn baby’s heartbeat is detectable, about six weeks of pregnancy.
During that time period, the study from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health suggests at least 9,799 unborn babies were saved from abortion and later were born in 2022.
Researchers said they used monthly live birth data from all 50 states to come up with the number. According to Johns Hopkins, “The researchers calculated that there would have been 287,289 live births in Texas from April to December 2022 had the abortion ban not gone into effect in September 2021. The number of observed births during this period was 297,088, a difference of 9,799.”
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In other words, the research suggests the Texas law saved about 1,225 babies from abortion every month. Six more months have passed since December, meaning approximately 7,350 more babies likely also have been spared from violent abortion deaths.
These are unique, valuable children who will have the opportunity to grow and thrive, experience joy, develop relationships and contribute to society.
However, researchers at Johns Hopkins portrayed their findings in a negative light, referring to pregnant women as “birthing people” and claiming pro-life laws cause harm.
“… abortion bans have real implications for birthing people, thousands of whom may have had no choice but to continue an unwanted or unsafe pregnancy to term,” said Suzanne Bell, PhD, MPH, an assistant professor at Bloomberg and another lead author of the study.
Bell said most women seeking abortions are struggling financially, so many of the mothers who gave birth in 2022 likely also are struggling.
But killing unborn babies in abortions is not a solution to poverty. Most pregnant mothers want better support, not abortions, and pro-life advocates have been working hard to increase resources to help families, including through government aid, tax credits, pregnancy resource centers, maternity homes, scholarships, baby showers, fundraisers and more.
Last year, when the Washington Post highlighted the struggles of a young Texas mother and her baby girls after the heartbeat law prevented her from having an abortion, pro-life actress Patricia Heaton and other pro-life leaders highlighted a fundraiser for the family, raising $50,000 in 24 hours.
Today in Texas, unborn babies are protected from abortion at all stages of pregnancy. After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe in June 2022, the state began enforcing a second pro-life law that bans all elective abortions. Now, 14 other states also are enforcing laws that ban or strictly limit elective abortions, and more are fighting in court to do the same.
While some women are traveling to other states for abortions and others are buying abortion drugs online, a number of studies indicate that pro-life laws are preventing abortions and saving lives. One report from the Society of Family Planning found that abortions dropped by about 24,000 nationwide from July 2022 to March 2023.
Michael J. New, an assistant professor at the Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America and an associate scholar at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, said the Texas birth data is “very powerful evidence” that state abortion bans are saving lives.
He conducted research earlier this year that came to very similar findings to those in the Johns Hopkins study.
“In my Charlotte Lozier Institute analysis, from November 2022, of Texas birth data, I found that the Heartbeat Act was preventing approximately 1,000 abortions from taking place in Texas every month,” New wrote earlier this week in a column published at LifeNews. “Also, new data from the CDC show that in 2022 the Texas birthrate increased by 4.7 percent — the largest percentage increase in the country.”
