[The effect of artificial abortion on the course and result of subsequent pregnancy]

The study covered a total of 1,488 pregnant women who came for their first prenatal consultations in about the 19th week of pregnancy. The experimental group consisted of 416 women previous pregnancy ended with artificial abortion. In the control groups there were women who had neither a delivery nor abortion, then women whose previous pregnancy ended with the birth of a live child, and, finally, women in whom the previous pregnancy ended with spontaneous abortion. It has been shown that after artificial abortion, spontaneous abortion and premature deliveries in the subsequent pregnancy are just as frequent as in women who have not been pregnant (ili who had no delivery). Nor was there any higher percentage of low birth-weight children or perinatal mortality. A larger number of newborns weighing at birth less than 2,500 g was observed in women in whom abortion was performed by vacuum aspiration and not by curettage. In women with the abortion performed by vacuum aspiration and becoming pregnant in the first year following abortion, there was a significantly higher number of premature deliveries and low birth-weight children.