some facts on abortion

[HJ Hornbeck]

I was tempted to wade back in with my favorite argument, "legal
abortions save lives and decrease harm," but in doing the research I
learned reality is more complicated than I figured.

In about 1936, Dr. Frederick Taussig estimated the deaths in the USA
caused by botched abortions to range between 8,000 and 10,000 per
year, based on officially reported figures of 2.700. In 1972, the year
before Roe vs. Wade made abortion legal, the official number stood at
about 40.

Why the dramatic drop? One reason is that medicine got a helluva
lot better in the intervening decades, thanks to drugs like penicillin
and better care in general. A woman who did her own abortion, and had
complications like bleeding and infection, was much more likely to
survive.

Another is that doctors did a much-larger share of the abortions;
Kinsey estimated in the 1950's that 85% of all illegal abortions were
done by doctors. It's not hard to understand why. They usually enter
medicine because they want to reduce suffering and save lives, and get
hammered with the Hippocratic Oath during their training. When a woman
pleads with them to abort an unwanted baby, and they know full well
the side-effects of a botched self-done abortion, it's tough to say
"no" even if it puts their career in jeopardy.

So what would happen if we magically made abortion illegal again?

I've heard that fewer medical schools train doctors how to perform
abortions, due to religious pressure. True or not, the liability
climate has gotten a lot worse for them too, so there are likely fewer
doctors per-capita willing to perform an illegal abortion today than
in the 1960's. It's likely that women will be more likely to resort to
dangerous self-done procedures instead.

The standard of care is much greater now than even in 1970,
though. Even if the number of women staggering into ERs takes a
dramatic uptick, they're much more likely to live on. We shouldn't
expect to see a large increase in deaths.

You could argue that banning abortion would cut down on the number
of abortions performed, offsetting the increase in ER visits. However,
a WHO study from 2007 concluded that abortion rates stay constant,
despite the legality of it. So adding the deterrent of fines and jail
time will have no effect.

In short, abortions would continue, more women would seek medical
care, and more women would have damaged reproductive systems. The
costs of banning abortion outweigh the benefits, so no matter what
your stance on when (or if) the soul enters the body, you should
support legalized abortion.

HJ Hornbeck
(Primary sources:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2510/before-em-roe-em-v-em-wade-em-did-10-000-women-a-year-die-from-illegal-abortions
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/12/news/12iht-12abortion.7863868.html )