A team of researchers examining data from the national Pregnancy and Health Survey in the December 2002 edition of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology (AJOG) compared three groups of women who recently had given birth: first-time mothers, those with one previous birth, and those carrying their first child to term after one abortion.

Women who previously had induced abortions were ten times more likely to have used marijuana, five times more likely to have used other illicit drugs, and twice as likely to have used alcohol during their pregnancies. But the real victims are the developing babies who incur higher risks of congenital defects, low birth weight, and death.