On Wednesday a study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology found that high and rising rates of maternal mortality in the United States are due to flawed data. Starting in 2003, a pregnancy checkbox was included in the national death certificates. Researchers found that this box was checked for many deaths unrelated to either pregnancy or childbirth. While previous data found that the U.S. maternal-mortality rate increased by a whopping 143 percent since 1999, these new data found that there was only a 2 percent increase since that time.

Supporters of legal abortion and their allies in the mainstream media often try to blame pro-life policies for increases in the maternal mortality rate. However, their analyses consistently fail to persuade.