--- title: Infant Mortality Increased In Most States With Abortion Bans description: Two new studies found that infant mortality and births increased in most states that had abortion bans in the year after the Dobbs ruling. canonical: https://time.com/7225531/infant-mortality-births-increased-states-abortion-bans-studies/ author: Chantelle Lee article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-02-14T22:31:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-10T23:44:11.716Z article:section: Health og:title: Infant Mortality Increased In Most States With Abortion Bans og:description: Two studies found that infant mortality and births increased in most states with abortion bans after the Dobbs ruling. og:url: https://time.com/7225531/infant-mortality-births-increased-states-abortion-bans-studies/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0de46570865d9978/6998b7ca07a30d4ba977b5a4/Mortality-Births-Studies-Post-Dobbs.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Stephen Parlato og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Infant Mortality Increased In Most States With Abortion Bans twitter:description: Two studies found that infant mortality and births increased in most states with abortion bans after the Dobbs ruling. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0de46570865d9978/6998b7ca07a30d4ba977b5a4/Mortality-Births-Studies-Post-Dobbs.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Infant Mortality and Births Increased In Most States With Abortion Bans, Studies Find > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. by [Chantelle Lee](https://time.com/author/chantelle-lee/) ## Chantelle Lee Reporter Feb 14, 2025 10:31 PM UTC  Stephen Parlato of Boulder, Colo., holds a sign that reads "Hands Off Roe!!!" as abortion rights advocates and anti-abortion protesters demonstrate in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 1, 2021, in Washington, D.C. Stephen Parlato of Boulder, Colo., holds a sign that reads "Hands Off Roe!!!" as abortion rights advocates and anti-abortion protesters demonstrate in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 1, 2021, in Washington, D.C.Andrew Harnik—The Associated Press by [Chantelle Lee](https://time.com/author/chantelle-lee/) ## Chantelle Lee Reporter Feb 14, 2025 10:31 PM UTC Infant mortality and births increased in the majority of states that had abortion bans in the year after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision [overturning](https://time.com/6189476/abortion-supreme-court-overturns-roe-v-wade/) _Roe v. Wade,_ according to two new studies. The studies, which [were](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2830298) [published](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2830297) in the _Journal of the American Medical Association_ on Thursday_,_ indicate that these impacts can be especially felt by people with socioeconomic disadvantages. Researchers said that the results “suggest that abortion bans may exacerbate racial disparities and disproportionately affect communities in southern states, where more than half of the U.S. Black population resides and infant mortality was already high.” The investigators analyzed data from birth and death certificates, as well as the U.S. Census Bureau, for all 50 states and Washington, D.C. from January 2012 through December 2023 to compare data from previous years and the 18 months after the Supreme Court’s ruling in _Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization._ One of the studies estimated that, overall, infant mortality was 5.6% higher than expected in states that enacted near-total abortion bans or bans after six weeks of pregnancy_,_ resulting in about 478 more infant deaths than expected based on data from previous years. The other study estimated that, overall, the birth rate in those states was 1.7% higher than expected, amounting to about 22,000 more births than expected based on previous years’ data. Fourteen states had enacted near-total or six-week abortion bans during the window that the researchers studied. As of mid-February 2025, 16 states have implemented such bans. Researchers acknowledged that Texas had an “outsized influence” on the overall findings, which they attributed partly to the state’s large population, greater distances to travel to get an abortion compared with other states that had bans at the time, and the fact that Texas had enacted a ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy before the other states did (about nine months before the _Dobbs_ ruling, in September 2021). The authors also found that increases in infant mortality were larger among groups that already had higher than average infant mortality rates, such as Black infants and those living in southern states. For Black infants in states with abortion bans, mortality was 11% higher than would have been expected if there hadn’t been abortion bans, according to one of the studies. Alyssa Bilinski, a professor at Brown University School of Public Health, was not involved in the studies but wrote an [editorial](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2830301) accompanying them, saying that the findings highlight “the need for ongoing, comprehensive research to fully understand” the effects of abortion restrictions, and suggested improving access to Medicaid, parental leave, and affordable child care as ways to help support pregnant people and infants. “There should be no partisan divide over the idea that all children and families deserve the opportunity to thrive,” Bilinski wrote in the editorial. “Even amidst heated national abortion debates, there remains much room for agreement: ensuring every child has the opportunity to thrive is a shared objective that transcends partisan lines, and thoughtful, family-oriented policy can both help to address the harms raised in these studies and foster a healthier and more equitable society for all.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7225531/infant-mortality-births-increased-states-abortion-bans-studies/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7225531/infant-mortality-births-increased-states-abortion-bans-studies/"},"headline":"Infant Mortality and Births Increased In Most States With Abortion Bans, Studies Find","datePublished":"2025-02-14T22:31:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-10T23:44:11.716Z","description":"Two new studies found that infant mortality and births increased in most states that had abortion bans in the year after the Dobbs ruling.","url":"https://time.com/7225531/infant-mortality-births-increased-states-abortion-bans-studies/","keywords":["Reproductive Health","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0de46570865d9978/6998b7ca07a30d4ba977b5a4/Mortality-Births-Studies-Post-Dobbs.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Chantelle Lee","jobTitle":"Reporter","url":"https://time.com/author/chantelle-lee/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0de46570865d9978/6998b7ca07a30d4ba977b5a4/Mortality-Births-Studies-Post-Dobbs.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Stephen Parlato","caption":"Stephen Parlato","creditText":"Andrew Harnik—The Associated Press","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/reproductive-health/","name":"Reproductive Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/7225531/infant-mortality-births-increased-states-abortion-bans-studies/","name":"Infant Mortality and Births Increased In Most States With Abortion Bans, Studies Find"}}]}] ```