Catholic Medical Association – Linacre Quarterly 2020
Patrick J. Marmion, MD, MPH, and Ingrid Skop, MD
Abstract
After years of failure to obtain accurate statistics on maternal mortality, the United States noted a sharpincrease in its maternal mortality rate with widening racial and ethnic disparities. The 2016 report shocked thenation by documenting a 26 percent increase in maternal mortality from 18.8/100,000 live births in 2000 to 23.8in 2014. Suggested etiologies of this increase included artifact as a result of improved maternal death sur-veillance, incorrect use ofICD-10codes, healthcare disparities, lack of family support and other social barriers,substance abuse and violence, depression and suicide, inadequate preconception care, patient noncompliance,lack of standardized protocols for handling obstetric emergencies, failure to meet expected standards of care,aging of the pregnant patient cohort with associated increase in chronic diseases and cardiovascular compli-cations, and lack of a comprehensive national plan. While some of the increase in maternal mortality may be aresult of improved data collection, pregnancy-related deaths are occurring at a higher rate in the United Statesthan in other developed countries. Some have suggested that the increased maternal mortality is due to limitingwomen’s access to legal abortion. In order to discover effective strategies to improve pregnancy outcomes,maternal mortality must be investigated in an unbiased manner. This review explores the relationship betweenlegal-induced abortion and maternal mortality.