CU professor says 'staying pregnant is more dangerous...than having an abortion'
In a forthcoming study for 'Demography,' professor Amanda Stevenson uses maternal mortality rates to argue that 'staying pregnant' is more dangerous than abortion.
Colorado Right to Life Director Susan Sutherland characterizes the argument as a 'strawman, making up a false dilemma and then attempting to answer it.'
A sociology professor at the University of Colorado Boulder published a study arguing that “staying pregnant” is more dangerous than having an abortion.
The study, forthcoming in Demography, analyzes “the mortality impact of denying all wanted induced abortions in the U.S.” Professor Amanda Jean Stevenson uses the annual number of maternal deaths and extrapolates the data to estimate how many women who get elective abortions would die if they carried their pregnancy to term.
According to the study, there would be 49 maternal deaths in the first year after an abortion ban and 140 every year following.
“The takeaway here is that if you deny people abortion, pregnancy-related deaths will increase because staying pregnant is more dangerous to a woman than having an abortion,” Stevenson told CU Boulder Today.
[RELATED: Emory workshop promotes abortion advocacy]
Colorado Right to Life Director Susan Sutherland told Campus Reform that the premise of Stevenson’s argument is “a strawman, making up a false dilemma and then attempting to answer it.”
“‘Staying pregnant’ means not murdering your baby,” Sutherland said. “The majority of abortion-murder is committed for convenience. Our society wants free sex with no consequences.”
These types of arguments ultimately don’t matter, Sutherland said, because they do not account for what abortion clearly is.
“Until and unless you begin from the proper premise: abortion is the murder of a tiny human, you are building upon an evil and wicked foundation,” she stated. “God says do not murder the innocent. A baby in the womb is clearly a human, not a potential human but a human with potential.”
[RELATED: Campus pro-life group is ‘danger to the student body,’ according to editorial board]
According to the most recent numbers available through the CDC, 619,591 babies were aborted in the US in 2018.
Multiple studies have also documented risks women face due to abortion-related complications. In 2018, Campus Reform reported on a study that found roughly 5,500 women annually end up in emergency rooms following an abortion.
Campus Reform reached out to Amanda Stevenson for comment but did not hear back in time for publication.
