Induced abortion is not a cause of subsequent preterm delivery in teenage pregnancies

To examine the possible impact of previous induced abortion on the occurrence of preterm delivery in the subsequent pregnancy in teenage women, a retrospective case-control study was performed on mothers aged 13-19 years who delivered in one tertiary hospital over a 4 year period. Those who had a history of induced abortion prior to the index pregnancy were identified from the records and compared with a control group without previous induced abortion and who were matched for maternal age and parity. Of the 118 cases thus identified, 28 (23.7%) had more than one induced abortions and 18 (15.3%) had one or more induced abortions in the second trimester. There were 10 (8.5%) para 1 cases. No significant differences could be demonstrated between the study and control groups in the maternal demographics, major pregnancy complications, or perinatal outcome, except for the incidence of smokers which was significantly higher (39.0 versus 14.4%, P < 0.02) in the study group. The number of previous induced abortions did not appear to be related to the incidence of preterm labour, which was 10.2 and 8.5% in the study and control groups respectively. Our findings indicate that previous induced abortion is not a significant cause of preterm labour and delivery in teenage pregnancies.