A letter to the editor discussing decreasing maternal deaths and whether or not abortion contributes. Dr. Leiva’s point is that maternal morbidity declines with improved health care, not access to abortion:
To further my point, I would bring up the examples of El Salvador and South Africa. The first legally prohibited induced abortion in 1998 and the latter legalized abortion on demand in 1996. Based on an April article from the prestigious British medical journal, The Lancet, the maternal mortality ratio in El Salvador has been decreased from 137 in 1990 to 37 in 2008, while in South Africa it went up from 121 to 237. Legalization of abortion had no impact.
This is a bit of an ongoing exchange, so here’s the letter Dr. Leiva is responding to. And here’s Dr. Leiva’s first letter.
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It sounds like Dr. Leiva is being too kind here, the El Salvador/South Africa data suggest that abortion may be a key factor increasing maternal mortality and full investigative/research efforts should be made to determine what, if any, effect easy abortion access has on maternal health – preferably apolitical research, as it is likely to be dismissed if it’s not (frankly, it would probably be dismissed anyway, if it shows something that someone doesn’t want to admit).