Having an abortion almost doubles a woman’s risk of giving birth dangerously early in a later pregnancy, according to research that will provoke fresh debate over the most controversial of all medical procedures.French study of 2,837 births – the first to investigate the link between terminations and extremely premature births – found that mothers who had previously had an abortion were 1.7 times more likely to give birth to a baby at less than 28 weeks’ gestation. Many babies born this early die soon after birth, and a large number who survive suffer serious disability….A spokesman for Marie Stopes International, which is the largest provider of abortions outside the NHS, said that women seeking terminations were not told of increased risks of premature births “because so far, they have not been established”.