Brent Rooney et al., Does Induced Abortion Account for Racial Disparity in Preterm Births, and Violate the Nuremberg Code?

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Brent Rooney et al., Does Induced Abortion Account for Racial Disparity in Preterm Births, and Violate the Nuremberg Code? 13 J. Am. Phys. & Surg. 102 (2008).

Between 1980 and 2005, the U.S. preterm birth (PTB) rate increased by 43 percent (from 8.9 to 12.7 percent). Black American women have triple the risk of early preterm birth (EPB), defined as delivery at less than 32.0 weeks' gestation, and quadruple the risk of extremely preterm birth (XPB), defined as delivery at less than 28.0 weeks' gestation, compared with non-black American women (1.39 percent in blacks vs. 0.35 percent in whites).

Six studies show statistically significant elevation of risk of XPB for women with prior induced abortion (IA), compared with women with no prior IA. There are no studies showing a statistically significant lower XPB risk for women with prior IA. In 1987, Harvard researchers led by Ellice Lieberman reported that black women in the Boston area with more than one prior IA had 1.9 times the odds of a PTB compared to black women with no prior IA. In 2006 and 2007, the Institute of Medicine confirmed that "prior first trimester induced abortion" is an "immutable medical risk factor associated with preterm birth."

In 2004, 38.2 percent of all U.S. surgical abortions were performed on black women, who comprise about 12.5 percent of the U.S. female population. This means that the abortion rate in blacks is 4.3 times as high as in non-blacks. The high relative abortion rate of blacks is a probable cause of the disparity in PTB.

The authors have not been able to find any animal studies of vacuum aspiration abortion published in the peer-reviewed medical literature. Human testing before animal testing is, however, proscribed in the Nuremberg Code. In late 1946, less than twelve...

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