Abortion, Childbirth and Safety

Pro-choicers waxed delirious over a recent study released by Obstetrics and Gynecology, and timed to interrupt the annual pro-life commemorations of America's child genocide.

The study reportedly found that abortion is safer than childbirth.

... between 1998 and 2005, one woman died during childbirth for every 11,000 or so babies born. That compared to one woman of every 167,000 who died from a legal abortion.

What very few noted was that the authors of the study itself explained why the numbers aren't what they seem:

In their report, published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, Raymond and Grimes write that the findings aren't surprising given that women are pregnant for a lot longer when they decide to have a baby and so have more time to develop complications.

Precisely.

Comparing an abortion at 8 weeks (which is when over 90% of abortions occur) to a live birth at 36 weeks is comparing apples to oranges.

If we want an accurate comparison of risk, we must compare on a week-by-week basis.
That is, during any given week of pregnancy, is it safer to be pregnant, or is it safer to be pregnant and have an abortion?

The answer to that one is obvious.
Any unnecessary surgical procedure adds risk.
Surgical abortion cures no disease, it is biologically unnecessary.

Thus, any woman who undergoes an abortion during ANY week of pregnancy has actually INCREASED her risk of morbidity and mortality over what it would normally have been for that week of pregnancy.

Put simply, a pregnant woman at 8 weeks is safer during that week to simply live as she is then to have an abortion during that week.

In fact, the risks of abortion climb so rapidly that after week 12, it is actually safer for the woman to carry the full 36 weeks to term than it is for her to have an abortion at week 13 or later.

Furthermore, women who have abortions are at higher risk of a whole range of medical and emotional problems in the years following their abortions.

The only way to get the numbers that this study gets is to weight the abortion scale heavily with early abortions, and then compare that 8-week procedure rate to something which is entirely different - a 36-week long marathon.

It ain't science, but it is silly.