I can’t begin to summarize the question into the title.
Factual question:
Has a Mother AND child ever died during (or soon after) delivery, simply because the Mother did not want to abort?
That is, has there been a documented case, where taking a pro-life stance has killed both Mother and child?
I understand the question will more than likely get out of hand. But, as the question, now, as I ask it, IS FACTUAL, I do not see a better place for it.
Most pregnancies are not aborted. Is the OP counting every pregnancy that goes to term as a “pro-life stance,” or is the question aimed at some narrower class of instances where the mother has specifically avowed some sort of pro-life position?
If the former, then the question seems easy. Women used to die in childbirth all the time, and still do in some cases. Presumably in some percentage of those maternal deaths, the child also died.
I suspect that the answer is yes, but that finding evidence will be difficult. Plenty of mothers and newborns die for many different reasons and the death certificate is never going to read “failure to have an abortion” for the cause of death. There will always be another reason - infection, bleeding, etc.
It’s also one of those things where there’s never (or at least rarely) a clear cause and effect. If a condition has a 50% chance of killing mother and baby without an abortion, is it fair to say that they died because they didn’t get the abortion? (If yes, then technically all birth-related deaths are because they didn’t get an abortion, since every labor has some risk.)
I’m not sure exactly what the OP is getting at, but…
The simple, non-snarky answer is that giving birth can be dangerous, and even fatal.
Are there cases in which a woman has died while giving birth? Absolutely, and you’ll have no trouble at all finding recent cases to bear this out.
Are there cases in which both a woman AND her baby have died during a complicated delivery? Even without documentation, I have no doubt that such things have happened numerous times.
A woman cannot die during childbirth if she has an abortion. THAT’s obvious enough.
I do know of one case where the woman was told she had a tubal pregnancy and refused to abort because she “didn’t want to kill her unborn child” and felt that “the doctors could be wrong and God would let me carry to term.”
She damn near died and was in the hospital for a month.
I read Randy Alcorn’s anti-abortion book. He states that the “pro-abortion groups” typically misrepresent death by abortion, giving this example:
A woman hemorrages from an abortion, has a blood transfusion, contacts hepatitis and dies. Listed cause of death: Hepatitis. Real cause of death: abortion.
Of course, if a woman hemorrages while giving birth, has a blood transfusion, contracts hepatitis and dies, the cause of death listed would be “giving birth”:rolleyes:
Well, the rate of death in childbirth in the U.S. climbed a little in 2007. Abortion isn’t mentioned but speculation that increasing obesity rates is, as a potential factor. It’s conceivable to me that an overweight woman might refuse an abortion and then suffer dire (and potentially fatal) consequences, though finding a specific case will be tricky.
Although they could, of course, die as a result of the abortion operation.
As I read the question, it seems the OP is not just talking about any case where both mother and child died during childbirth (which I’m sure has happened), they’re asking for a case in which EITHER: doctors recommended abortion, or where a pregnant woman was advised by other people such as family members to have an abortion. After this the woman refused to abort because of her pro-life stance, and then both the woman and the child died during childbirth.
I think if you want to find examples like the first one, you’ll first need to think about what cases doctors would recommend abortion for. If it’s the latter (pressure from family members or something along those lines) there might be examples but I think they’ll be difficult to find online.
I think it is pretty clear what the OP is getting at. Is there a doucmented case in which a woman was diagnosed with a condition (e.g. tubal pregnancy) that she was told could reasonably result in the deaths of both the fetus and her and nonetheless refused, on religious or maybe other grounds, to allow and abortion and then it came to pass that both died? I don’t know the answser, but I am curious now that the question has been raised.
I suppose the OP probably means a case where a woman was documented as having a pro-life stance. You don’t have to be against abortion per se to decide, ‘in this case, I’m going to try and have the baby’. That’s the point of pro-choice; they want the mother to have a free choice either way.
Given that (to the best of my knowledge!) the Amish are against abortion, if anyone can find a case of both the mother and child dying during childbirth in an Amish community that should be a case meeting the criteria.
