a new study has found. Researchers estimate there were 478 infant deaths across 14 states with bans or heavy restrictions on the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy - which they say would not have occurred had they not been in place. Alison Gemmill, co-leader of the study, said "restrictive abortion policies" could be "reversing decades of progress" in reducing infant deaths across the US. In its 2022 ruling, the US Supreme Court reversed its 50-year-old Roe v Wade decision which had protected a woman's constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy up until the point of foetal viability, around the 24th week. The study, published this week by researchers from the John Hopkin's Bloomberg School of Public Health, found an increase in mortality rates for babies born with congenital issues, as well as among groups where death rates already were higher than average. This included black infants, as well as for babies whose parents were unmarried, younger, did not attend college, and for those living in southern states.