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Why Prior Abortions Can Raise Autism Risk
In 1999, Professor Larry Burd & colleagues reported that women with prior induced abortions had a three times higher risk of delivering a newborn later diagnosed with autism.1
In the 1960s, the U.S. autism rate for newborns was approximately 1 in 10,000, but the rate skyrocketed to 1 in 110 in 2009 according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Is it biologically plausible that prior maternal induced abortions elevate a newborn baby’s autism risk? In a word, yes. This is because of two mechanisms — preterm birth (very preterm and extremely preterm) and raised paternal age at delivery.
Six significant studies report that prior induced abortions boost extremely preterm birth risk (under 28 weeks’ gestation).
Extremely preterm babies have about 25 times the autism risk as do full-term (at least 37 weeks’ gestation) babies.2
The older the parents are at delivery, the higher the autism risk.
In a 2001 study of French women, Dr. Henriet reported that French women with more than one prior induced abortion had 2.4 times (i.e. 140% higher) the risk of maternal age over 34 at delivery compared to women with zero prior induced abortions.3
Michael Ganz estimates that the lifetime cost (medical costs + non-medical costs + reduced income) of a U.S. newborn with autism to be $3.2 million.4
Should abortion providers wait
for “conclusive” proof of the abortion-autism risk before warning women
of a possible increased autism risk? My understanding of U.S. law is
that patients must be warned of a serious adverse risk of a treatment
for which there is credible evidence (“credible” evidence is well short
of so-called “conclusive” evidence).
One
hundred percent “conclusive” evidence in the field of medical research
(in particular, epidemiology) for a purported risk factor does not and
can not exist (in statistical jargon, the Gaussian distribution can
never provide 100 percent confidence of higher risk or 100 percent
confidence of lower risk).
For those who want to dig deeper into the subject of autism, read the
2010 book The Age of Autism (Olmsted & Blaxill).
Certainly, the
authors much suspect that mercury in vaccines is a likely cause of
autism.
I suspect that both oral contraceptives and prior induced
abortions elevate autism risk; and more generally, that anything that
undermines a young woman’s health raises her risk of delivering a
newborn later diagnosed with autism.
Brent Rooney, M.Sc., is the Research Director at the Reduce Preterm Risk
Coalition, based in Vancouver. This article originally appeared in
Justice for Kids Now Bulletin, Feb. 28, 2011. Reprinted with permission.
Citations
1. Burd, L. Severud, R. Kerbeshian, J. Klug, MG. Prenatal and perinatal
risk factors for autism. J Perinat Med. 1999; 27(6):441-50.
2. Limperopoulos C. Autism spectrum disorders in survivors of extreme prematurity. Clin Perinatol 2009; 36:791-805.
3. Henriet L, Kaminski M. Impact of induced abortions on subsequent
pregnancy outcome: the 1995 French national perinatal survey. BJOG
2001;108(10):1036-1042 [Study Population: French women]
4. Michael L. Ganz . The lifetime distribution of the incremental
societal costs of autism. Archives Pediatric Adolescent Medicine
2007;161:343-349.
[Posted on March 9, 2011 by EIliot Institute, Brent Rooney, M.Sc.,
http://afterabortion.org/2011/why-prior-abortions-raise-autism-risk/]
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Abortion 
