Infant mortality increased in the months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, leading to legislation across the country that drastically limited the accessibility of abortions with widespread reproductive health consequences.
In the 18 months following the Supreme Court decision rescinding the federal right to abortion in the Dobbs decision in June 2022, the infant mortality rate was 7% higher than expected, according to a study published in JAMA Pediatrics today. This corresponded to 247 excess deaths in three months studied — October 2022, March 2023, and April 2023. More than 80% of those deaths occurred in infants with congenital abnormalities.
