Illegal Abortions: The Myth and the Cure

The Post-Abortion Review
Vol. 7, No. 4, Oct-Dec 1999
David C. Reardon, Ph.D.
Elliot Institute
Reproduced with Permission

Below the pictures of bloody coat hangers are red stenciled letters: "We won't go back." It is both a challenge and a warning. For many, it is the cause of moral paralysis. For such people, the fear of women dying in filthy back alleys is the primary reason they accept legalized abortion.

Polls show that while 80 percent of Americans agree that abortion is killing a human life, most also believe abortion should be legally accessible, at least in some cases. Many of these people accept abortion as an "evil necessity." Others tolerate it as an "unavoidable evil." They buy into the assumption that without "safe and legal" abortions, desperate women will foolishly seek out dangerous and illegal abortions. Since abortion can't be stopped, they argue, why put women's lives at risk?

This is a compelling argument. So compelling, in fact, that it has become the central argument in efforts to promote permissive abortion laws in developing countries.

In Africa, South America and Asia, population controllers are replicating the tactics used to legalize abortion in Europe and North America. They manufacture exaggerated claims about the frequency of illegal abortions and the number of women dying. They plead on behalf of struggling women who are "burdened" with an endless stream of "unwanted" children.

They claim that no law can stop these desperate women from choosing abortion. The problem is too big. The demand of the people is too great. The only way to protect women from "unsafe" abortions is to respect their "reproductive rights" and make abortion legal and safeÑand preferably free, funded by the state.

If pro-lifers want to contain the spread of legalized abortion, much less reverse pro-abortion laws, we must have a solution to the problem of illegal abortions. At the same time, we need to show that the "solution" of legalizing abortion is no solution at all. We must show that legal abortion only increases the pain, suffering and exploitation of women. We must show that the "cure" is far worse than the disease.

Illegal vs. Legal Abortion: The American Experience

In my book Aborted Women, Silent No More, an entire chapter examines what is known about illegal abortions prior to Roe v. Wade and how they compare to the dangers of legal abortion today. While there is not room to reexamine all that material here, I will quickly review some of the most important points.(1)

• Prior to legalization, 90 percent of illegal abortions were done by physicians. Most of the remainder were done by nurses, midwives or others with at least some medical training. The term "back alley" abortion referred not to where abortions were performed, but to how women were instructed to enter the doctor's office after hours, through the back alley, to avoid arousing neighbors' suspicions.
• Pro-abortionists claimed that "five to ten thousand women die from illegal abortions every year." This pseudo-fact was much repeated by the media. Abortion proponents like former abortionist Dr. Bernard Nathanson knew this figure was false but considered it to be "useful" in their public relations campaign. Even Planned Parenthood's own leading statisticians admitted that the official statistics on deaths resulting from illegal abortion were very accurately reported prior to 1973. In 1972, there were only 32 maternal deaths related to illegal abortion, not the thousands proclaimed by pro-abortionists.
• Deaths from illegal abortions were already declining or leveling off prior to 1973. After legalization, this trend remained unchanged. Deaths eliminated from the illegal abortion column were replaced by deaths resulting from legal abortion.
• The number of women dying from legal abortions is probably several times what it was when abortion was illegal. For many compelling reasons, deaths resulting from illegal abortion were accurately reported on death certificates. Independent studies have confirmed this. But ever since 1973, whenever a legal abortion results in a maternal death the underlying cause is often, and perhaps usually, ignored or disguised on death certificates.

This occurs for many reasons: to spare the surviving family members embarrassment, to limit liability exposure, to avoid tarnishing public perceptions of abortion, and simply because the death is no longer related to a criminal activity.

For entire article and more information view: http://www.afterabortion.org/PAR/V7/n4/illegalabortions.htm

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