Elsevier

The Journal of Pediatrics

Volume 205, February 2019, Pages 183-189.e1
The Journal of Pediatrics

Original Articles
Effects of Carrying an Unwanted Pregnancy to Term on Women's Existing Children

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2018.09.026Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Objective

To examine how receiving or being denied a wanted abortion affects the subsequent development, health, caregiving, and socioeconomics of women's existing children at time of seeking abortion.

Study design

The Turnaway Study is a 5-year longitudinal study with a quasi-experimental design. Women were recruited from January 2008 to December 2010 from 30 abortion facilities throughout the US. We interviewed women regarding the health and development of their living children via telephone 1 week after seeking an abortion and semiannually for 5 years. We compare the youngest existing children younger than the age 5 years of women denied abortion because they presented for care beyond a facility's gestational limit (Turnaway group) with those of women who received the abortion (Abortion group). We used mixed-effects regression models to test for differences in outcomes of existing children of women in the Turnaway group (n = 55 children) compared with existing children of women in the Abortion group (n = 293 children).

Results

From 6 months to 4.5 years after their mothers sought abortions, existing children of women denied abortions had lower mean child development scores (adjusted β −0.04, 95% CI −0.07 to −0.00) and were more likely to live below the Federal Poverty Level (aOR 3.74, 95% CI 1.59-8.79) than the children of women who received a wanted abortion. There were no significant differences in child health or time spent with a caregiver other than the mother.

Conclusions

Denying women a wanted abortion may have negative developmental and socioeconomic consequences for their existing children.

Keywords

unwanted pregnancy
child development
child health
poverty
caregiving

Abbreviations

PEDS:DM
Parents' Evaluation of Developmental Status: Developmental Milestones
TANF
Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program

Cited by (0)

Supported by research and institutional grants from the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and an anonymous foundation. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.