abortion's link to premies

The prevalence of abortion in the African-American community is well-established.

Now comes research linking these abortions to premature births later on-- a synopsis of which is provided here (hat tip: Touchstone).

A report published by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons links the disproportionately high rate of preterm births (PTB) among black babies to the high rate of abortion among the black minority.

The article, written by Dr. Brent Rooney et. al., notes that since PTB "has a serious adverse effect on children's health, with a disparate impact on black children," it is "crucial to discover the cause of the disparity." Rooney is the research director of the Reduce Preterm Risk Coalition.

The report notes that black American women are at three times higher risk for giving birth prematurely, and four times higher risk for giving birth extremely prematurely....

Six studies were cited to show consistent evidence that women who had undergone induced abortions displayed a significantly increased risk of PTB....Rooney noted that PTB rates in Poland dropped drastically after abortion was banned.

Then, a very interesting point:

Accordingly, Rooney concludes that because of a failure to test the procedure on animals or small human trials prior to widespread use, vacuum aspiration, or "suction" abortions violate the Nuremberg Code of ethics. The code, which was implemented in reaction to Nazi human experimentation, requires the safe validation of a medical procedure before being made available to the public.

"Millions of women have been subjected, without safety testing, to a procedure for which there is substantial evidence of serious health risks both to women and their future offspring," concludes the article. At the very least, it says, the risks "need to be explicitly included in consent forms."...