A study by Elard Koch, et. al. maternal death rate in Chile over the past few decades shows that the downward trend in maternal mortality rate was not slowed by the prohibition of abortion in 1989, contrary to assertions that maternal mortality rates will increase where abortion is made illegal. The study, called “Women’s Education Level, Maternal Health Facilities, Abortion Legislation and Maternal Deaths: A Natural Experiment in Chile from 1957 to 2007,” is available on the PLOS One website, an open access journal. According to an article on LifeNews.com, the study has been criticized on methodological grounds by the Guttmacher Institute. The authors have replied to the Guttmacher criticism.
It should be noted that the study does not assert that the change in abortions laws decreased maternal morality rate. It only asserts that the change in law did not slow down an already occurring annual reduction in maternal morality.