Restricting abortion access harms the children abortion-seeking women already have, according to a study published this week in the Journal of Pediatrics. Previous research has found that 60% of women who choose abortions already have children. It’s yet another data point showing that Republican anti-choice rhetoric is not about concern for children’s well-being.

How Abortion Restrictions Harm Children

The study used data from the Turnaway Study, a longitudinal study that compares data on women who receive abortions to women who seek, but are denied, abortions due to restrictions on state abortion clinics. The team collected data on 55 children whose mothers were denied an abortion, and 293 children whose mothers had an abortion.

Children whose mothers were denied an abortion were less likely to meet age-typical developmental milestones. Seventy-seven percent of children whose mothers received an abortion hit these milestones, compared to 73% whose mothers were denied an abortion. Though the difference is small, it is statistically significant and cannot be explained by chance.

Consistent with previous research, the study also found higher rates of poverty (72%) among children whose mothers were denied an abortion, compared to those whose mothers were not (55%). Eighty-seven percent of children in the abortion denial group lived in a house with inadequate money to cover basic needs like housing, food, and transportation, compared to 70% of children in the control group.

The Long-Lasting Effects of Being Denied an Abortion

Anti-choice activists have never shown much interest in what happens to women who seek but do not receive abortions. They’re uninterested in offering emotional or financial support, or in tracking outcomes in this group. Thanks to the Turnaway Study, we know that women fare worse when they are denied an abortion. Previous research using that study’s data has found that being denied an abortion increases the chances of living in poverty, of staying in an abusive relationship, and of needing welfare.

Many studies touted by anti-choicers as “proving” that abortion is harmful are ultimately retracted. Meanwhile, research supporting the health benefits of abortion accumulates. High-quality, peer-reviewed research has found:

One of the most puzzling research findings argues that banning abortion may actually increase the abortion rate. But because women seek unsafe abortions when abortion is banned, maternal mortality also increases. Unsafe abortions, mostly in areas that ban abortion, kill thousands of women and girls each year.

The decision about whether and for whom to vote next week may mean the difference between a world in which women have access to needed healthcare and one in which they are denied abortions or even criminalized for seeking them. The evidence is clear: the only pro-life stance is a pro-choice one. Anything else kills women and harms children.