ArticleAJOG global reports2023
Maternal morbidity under an absolute abortion ban: insights from a 6-year case series of fatal fetal malformations in El Salvador.
Article in AJOG global reports, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 3 citations in OpenAlex.
- US Abortion Bans and Pregnancy-Associated Mortality.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Failure of the Law to Grant Access to Legal Abortion in Chile.Health equity · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundA striking number of national and subnational governments that previously allowed legal abortion in cases of severe fetal anomaly have passed new legislation to explicitly remove these allowances. However, we know little about the maternal health implications of such restrictions.
objectiveThis study aimed to examine the health outcomes of pregnant individuals in El Salvador whose fetuses were diagnosed with a fatal congenital malformation and who were legally required to carry these nonviable pregnancies to term under the nation's absolute abortion ban. STUDY
designWe reviewed the charts of all 239 pregnancies with fetuses classified as having 1 of 18 congenital malformations typically considered to be incompatible with extrauterine life that were evaluated at the National Women's Hospital in El Salvador between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2018. Because regional healthcare providers who identify pregnancy complications in El Salvador are instructed to refer those patients to the National Women's Hospital, our analysis captured the total population of lethal fetal malformations treated by the national public health system. We documented pregnant patients' socioeconomic characteristics, pregnancy-related complications, and the medical procedures used to mitigate complications.
resultsIndividuals who were required to carry pregnancies with severe fetal malformations to term (or until preterm labor began naturally) experienced high rates of maternal morbidity. More than half (54.9%) of pregnancies experienced at least 1 serious pregnancy-related health complication, whereas 47.9% underwent a physically-invasive medical procedure to manage complications, including cesarean deliveries, decompression amniocenteses, fetal head decompressions, and, in 1 case, a full hysterectomy. A total of 9% of patients opted to discontinue care after receiving the diagnosis of fatal fetal malformation. We also found striking variation in how physicians managed pregnancies with fatal fetal malformations, suggesting that different interpretations of the law lead to inequities in individual-level patient care.
conclusionLaws prohibiting abortions in cases of severe fetal malformation can increase risks to pregnant patients by requiring clinicians to subject healthy patients to a course of treatment that generates morbidity.
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