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  • Title: Health benefits of legal abortion: an analysis.
    Author: Tyrer LB.
    Journal: Plan Parent Rev; 1985; 5(2):24-7. PubMed ID: 12340404.
    Abstract:
    The abolition of legal abortion in the US would seriously threaten the health, and even the lives, of women and children. Statistics on the relationship between abortion and health attained before and after abortion was legalized were used to project some of the probable consequences of reversing the US Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Abortion has been widely practiced throughout US history, but the actual number of procedures performed before some states legalized abortion is unknown. Few legal procedures were performed for medical reasons, yet many illegal abortions took place. In 1955, a panel of experts could only provide a "best estimate" of between 200,000 and 1,200,000 illegally induced abortions occurring annually in the US. The actual number was most likely closer to the higher figure. The complication rates for illegal abortions, most of which were performed by unskilled practitioners in unsafe settings, were much higher than the rates for legal abortion now. Complications were related to ineffective or unsafe methods, Sepsis, particularly with the bacterium "Clostridium prefringens," which causes gas gangrene, was a major problem that has virtually disappeared. Each year prior to the 1970s, more than 100 women in the US died of abortion complications. Due to the fact that vital statistics reflect an incomplete ascertainment of deaths, the actual number of deaths is probably larger, possibly by as much as 50%. In 1983 more than 1.3 million procedures were performed -- a figure close to the estimated number of illegal abortions performed before 1970. In comparison, 672,000 hysterectomies and 424,000 tonsillectomy operations were performed the same year. The number of abortion-related deaths in the US decreased between 1972 and 1980, from 90 to 16. Most of this decrease resulted from the availability and safety of legal abortion. Legal abortion carries an especially low risk of death, particularly when performed in the 1st trimester. For the 1972-80 period, the risk of death was 1.9/100,0000 abortion procedures. Legal abortion also has a lower risk of death than does childbearing. Using even conservative data, the comparison of mortality rates reveals that terminating a pregnancy through legally induced abortion is 7 times safter than carrying the pregnancy to term. Legal abortion also results in low morbidity rates. As legal abortions became widely available, the numbers of women treated for septic abortion complications in emergency rooms and hospitals decreased markedly. If abortions were again made illegal, the number of illegal abortions in the US would probably increase from fewer than 20,000 at present to more than 1,000,000 per year. Because illegal abortion may carry a risk of death as much as 30 times that of legal abortion, deaths to women of reproductive age in the US would be expected to increase.
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