Laws protecting the unborn, and therefore less permissive in regard to abortion, are controversial because they allegedly lead to hidden, illegal abortions and an increase maternal deaths.

However, as Nationalrighttolifenews.org reports, a new study conducted in 32 Mexican states and published in the open access version of the British Medical Journal (BMJ Open) challenges this notion. It found that Mexican states with less permissive abortion laws had 23 percent lower overall maternal mortality, and up to 47 percent lower mortality from complications of abortion.

The study, conducted by the MELISA Institute along with an international panel of researchers, compared a standard indicator of maternal health known as the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) between 18 states with less permissive legislation and 14 states with a more permissive law, during a 10-year study period between 2002 and 2011.

According to Monique Chireau, Ob/Gyn and epidemiologist at Duke University, “diversity of abortion legislation and the availability of virtually complete vital records in every Mexican state allowed for a unique natural experiment assessing whether populations exposed to less permissive abortion legislation also exhibited higher MMR. Data showed exactly the opposite.”

Chireau pointed out that an important methodological advance in the Mexican study was the ability to identify and disaggregate deaths from abortions without a clear cause or when illegal procedure is suspected.