Murder of Pregnant Women - Statistics

Statistics

The third leading cause of death for pregnant women is homicide. ABC News claim that about 20 percent of women who die during pregnancy are victims of murder. However according to the CDC "The pregnancy-associated homicide ratio was 1.7 per 100,000 live births". In other words the chances of a pregnant woman being murdered was around 0.0017%.

Isabelle Horon and Diana Cheng published a Maryland study in 2001 in the Journal of the American Medical Association which found "a pregnant or recently pregnant woman is more likely to be a victim of homicide than to die of any other cause":

he killings span racial and ethnic groups. In cases whose details were known, 67 percent of women were killed with firearms. Many women were slain at home — in bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens — usually by men they knew. Husbands. Boyfriends. Lovers.

The suggestion that this is the primary cause of prenatal maternal death, however, suffers a lack of fully reliable data. Homicide was the second-leading cause of death among women ages 20 to 24 and fifth among women ages 25–34 in 1999. The top cause of death in both age groups is accidents.

In 2003, California changed its death certificate documentation to include a female victim's maternity status.

Read more about this topic:  Murder Of Pregnant Women

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