Do abortion bans cause more infant deaths?

Claims that abortion bans cause more infant deaths often rest on a misunderstanding of what infant mortality statistics are actually capturing. In places like Texas, higher recorded infant death rates after abortion restrictions can reflect a shift in when deaths occur and how they are counted, rather than the creation of a new cause of death.

When abortion is not permitted for unborn children diagnosed with congenital heart conditions, some children who would previously have been aborted are instead carried to birth. If those children later die from their underlying medical conditions, their deaths are now recorded as infant deaths rather than fetal deaths. The outcome—death from natural causes related to a congenital condition—did not newly arise because of the abortion restriction; what changed is that the child was not deliberately killed before birth.

It is also important to recognize that congenital heart conditions vary widely. Some are mild, many are treatable, and not all are fatal. While some infants with severe conditions will still die and that is tragic, ending their lives before birth ensures that none of them have any chance at treatment or survival. A more humane response is to focus on improving care, treatment, and support for children born with congenital heart conditions, which can and does save lives that would otherwise be lost.