Women who have had one or more abortions are at a significantly higher risk of having a baby born before 28 weeks gestation, a new study from Finland finds.

“The odds ratio for very preterm birth (less than 28 weeks) increased from 1.19 with one induced abortion (95% CI 0.98 to 1.44) to 2.78 for women who had had three or more abortions (95% CI 1.48 to 5.24) before giving birth for the first time” according to Medpage Today. The online journal Human Reproduction went on to report that the risk for preterm birth (before 37 weeks gestation) was increased only in women who had three or more prior induced abortions.

Interestingly, the authors of the study hypothesized that one prior abortion might not have an effect on birth outcomes, but that multiple abortions might. But they found that even one abortion impacted birth before 28 weeks. In other words, they postulated that a “dose-related” risk for birth problems might occur with multiple abortions. The researchers identified over 300,000 first time mothers in Finland, which has a low rate of abortions compared to other countries. Of the identified mothers, 10% had had one abortion, 1.5% had two, and 0.3 %…