{"id":47866,"date":"2023-01-28T08:10:58","date_gmt":"2023-01-28T08:10:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/how-total-abortion-ban-puts-maternal-health-at-risk-harvard-gazette\/"},"modified":"2023-01-28T08:10:58","modified_gmt":"2023-01-28T08:10:58","slug":"how-total-abortion-ban-puts-maternal-health-at-risk-harvard-gazette","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/how-total-abortion-ban-puts-maternal-health-at-risk-harvard-gazette\/","title":{"rendered":"How total abortion ban puts maternal health at risk \u2013 Harvard Gazette"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Pregnant patients in El Salvador, who, under the nation\u2019s abortion ban, had no choice but to carry fetuses with severe malformations to term, experienced high rates of maternal morbidity, according to new research by Harvard sociologist Jocelyn Viterna and two partner Salvadoran physicians. The study, which examined 239 pregnancies with one of 18 malformations typically considered fatal between 2013 and 2018, appears in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology Global Reports.<\/a><\/p>\n

In explaining why they took up their research, Viterna and co-authors Carolina Mena Ugarte and Mar\u00eda Virginia Rodr\u00edguez Funes, wrote that a \u201cstriking number of national and subnational governments that previously allowed legal abortion in cases of severe fetal anomaly\u201d had passed laws to remove the allowances, but that little was known about the maternal health implications.<\/p>\n

Viterna, who has spent nearly 10 years researching reproductive justice in the small Central American country, says she sees some parallels between issues raised by the research in El Salvador and those arising in the U.S. as several states have tightened restrictions on abortion after the Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision. In both countries, doctors are forced to follow a course of care that elevates the risk of health complications for pregnant patients to protect themselves from prosecution, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more time I spend working on cases in El Salvador, the more I\u2019m convinced that we cannot legislate abortion,\u201d said Viterna, a professor of sociology. \u201cThere\u2019s no way to legally define viability. There\u2019s no way to legally define the exact moment when a woman\u2019s life is in danger or not. Pregnancy on its own is high-risk. Anytime someone is pregnant, it brings risks to the health and to the life of the pregnant person.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Sandra Carolina Mena Ugarte collects data in the National Women\u2019s Hospital. Photo by Jocelyn Viterna<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Like many Latin American nations, El Salvador banned abortion except in three scenarios: when the life of the mother was at risk, when the fetus had an anomaly incompatible with life, or if the pregnancy was the result of rape. That changed in the 1990s, when the anti-abortion movement in the heavily Catholic nation began to press for major changes. Abortion became illegal in all circumstances in 1998.<\/p>\n

The study was sparked by conversations Viterna had with Mena, who expressed frustration over the lack of research into the effects of fatal fetal malformations on maternal health.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer sense was that pregnant women were suffering significant health costs, both physical and psychological, by being required to carry to term nonviable pregnancies,\u201d the sociologist said. The research tested Mena\u2019s hypothesis, and found high rates of negative health outcomes across the entire study population.<\/p>\n