Infant Mortality on the Rise Post-Dobbs Can Be Due to Physician Negligence
Researchers have found that infant mortality numbers are on the rise post-Dobbs. Eighty percent of those deaths are due to women being forced to bring babies with congenital abnormalities to term, where they often die within one year. Some of those abnormalities are diagnosed by ultrasound, sadly often after some states' draconian 6-week abortion bans.
For those abnormalities not diagnosed until delivery, it is often the fault of the obstetrician or perinatologist failing to diagnose a congenital abnormality on ultrasound - thereby not even allowing a decision on whether to abort the pregnancy to be made.
When a physician fails to diagnose a diagnosable congenital abnormality like Down Syndrome, Tay-Sachs, or Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome on ultrasound it is often due to physician or ultra-sonographer negligence. The fact that it is diagnosed after a state's abortion restriction does not mean the pregnancy has to be taken to term, however. Presently, there are 29 states that allow abortions to take place before viability (usually 24 weeks) giving a mother weeks to decide what to do in the face of a diagnosed congenital abnormality.
Sadly, if negligence occurs and no abnormality is diagnosed, it does not matter what abortion ban is in place, the baby is taken to term and if it survives the parents must bear the burden of raising a child who suffers unbearable pain at a huge cost to their family.
Wrongful birth is a type of negligence lawsuit that can right this wrong. Parents forced to deliver a child with a congenital abnormality that should have been diagnosed at or before 20 weeks can sue for pain and suffering damages as well as the extraordinary costs of caring for a child with a congenital abnormality. For them, it is the only way to right the failure of their physician to alert them of a diagnosable congenital abnormality before it must be taken to term.
In the months that infant mortality was higher than expected – October 2022, March 2023 and April 2023 – rates were about 7% higher than typical, leading to an average of 247 more infant deaths in each of those months. About 80% of those additional infant deaths could be attributed to congenital anomalies, which were higher than expected in six of the 18 months following the Dobbs decision, according to the new research. Congenital anomalies can range from mild to severe cases, and some of the most common types can affect an infant’s heart or spine. In some cases, babies with a birth defect may only survive a few months.
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