Fact SheetMedical and Social Health BenefitsSince Abortion Was Made Legal in the U.S.Cited ReferencesMedical and Social Health Benefits Since Abortion Was Made Legal in the U.S.Fact SheetPublished by the Katharine Dexter McCormickLibraryPlanned Parenthood Federation of America810 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10019212-261-4779www.plannedparenthood.orgwww.teenwire.comDespite the claims of anti-choice ideologues, many demonstrable health benefits — physical, emotional,and social — have accrued to Americans since 1973, when the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion in its decision, Roe v. Wade.The most important benefit, of course, has been the end of an era that supported the proliferation of “back alley butchers” who were motivated by money alone and performed unsafe, medically incompetent abortions that left many women dead or injured. Andcompassionate mainstream physicians, who provided clandestine, medically safe abortions, who did not exploit their patients, and who were motivated by principle rather than by financial concerns, no longer had to fear imprisonment and the loss of their medical licenses for performing abortions after Roe was decided (Joffe, 1995). Today, as the 32nd anniversary of this landmark decision approaches, it is important to remember how far Roe has brought us as a society and to note some of the many benefits that resulted from the legalization of abortion.Roe v. Wade did not “invent” abortion.- Estimates of the annual number of illegal abortions in the 1950s and 1960s range from 200,000 to 1.2 million (Cates, et al., 2003; Rock & Jones, 2003; Tietze & Henshaw, 1986).- In 1969, one year before New York State legalized abortion, complications from abortions accounted for 23 percent of all pregnancy-related admissions to municipal hospitals in New York City (Institute of Medicine, 1975).- After California liberalized its abortion law in 1967, the number of admissions for infectionresulting from illegal abortion at Los AngelesCounty/University of Southern California Medical Center fell by almost 75 percent (Seward, et al., 1973).Since Roe v. Wade, women have obtained abortions earlier in pregnancy when health risks to them are at the lowest.- In 1973, only 36 percent of abortions were performed at or before eight weeks of pregnancy (CDC, 1999).- Today, 88 percent of all legal abortions are performed within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, and 59 percent take place within the first eight weeks of pregnancy. Only 1.4 percent occur after 20 weeks (CDC, 2004).Deaths from abortion declined dramatically during the past two decades.- In 1965, when abortion was still illegal nationwide except in cases of life endangerment, at least 193 women died from illegal abortions, and illegal abortion accounted for nearly 17 percent of all deathsdue to pregnancy and childbirth in that year (NCHS, 1967).- In 1973, the risk of dying from an abortion was 3.4 deaths per 100,000 legal abortions. This rate fell to 1.3 by 1977 (Gold, 1990). Today, abortion is one of the most commonlyperformed clinical procedures, and the current death rate from abortion at all stagesof gestation is 0.6 per 100,000 procedures. This is eleven times safer than carrying a pregnancy to term and nearly twice as safe as a penicillin injection (AGI, 2004; Rock & Jones, 2003; Paul et al., 1999; Gold, 1990).Medically safe, legal abortion has had a profound impact on American women and their families.- Couples at risk of having children affected with severe and often fatal genetic disordershave been willing to conceive because of the availability of amniocentesis and safe, legal abortion (Milunsky, 1989).- Following the legalization of abortion, the largest decline in birthrates were seen among women for whom the health and social consequences of unintended childbearing are the greatest — women over35, teenagers, and unmarried women (Levine, et al., 1999). Today, thirty percent ofthe abortions in the U.S. are provided to women over 35 and to teenagers (CDC, 2004).- More than half of all abortions are performedat or before eight weeks of pregnancy, whenthe procedure is the safest — 0.2 deaths per100,000 procedures (Gold, 1990).2- Half of all pregnancies in the U.S. each year are unintended, and about half of these are terminated by medically safe, legal abortions. In 2000, 1.31 million abortions took place, down from an estimated 1.61 million in 1990. From 1973 through 2000, more than 39 million legal abortions occurred (AGI, 2004; Henshaw, 2003).- If safe, legal abortion were not available, more women would experience unwanted childbearing, and unwanted childbearing affects the entire family. Mothers with unwanted births suffer from higher levels of depression and lower levels of happiness than mothers without unwanted births. Theyspank and slap their children more often than other mothers, and spend less leisure time outside the home with their children. Lower-quality mother/child relationships are not limited to the child born as a result of theunwanted pregnancy — all the children in the family suffer (Barber, et al., 1999). - The legalization of abortion has also improved the average living conditions of children. Because of increased access to abortion, cohorts born after 1973 are less likely than those born before 1973 to be in single-parent households, to live in poverty, and to receive welfare. They also experience lower infant mortality rates (Gruber, et al., 1999).- In 1973, the majority of abortions were performed in hospitals. Today, most abortions are performed in clinics. This change in locale has also allowed more women to have access to comprehensive reproductive health services, including, but not limited to, contraceptive counseling, family planning services, and gynecological care (Cates, et al., 2003).The health and well-being of women and childrensuffer the most in states that have the most stringent anti-abortion laws. - Compared to pro-choice states, anti-abortionstates spend far less money per child on a range of services such as foster care, education, welfare, and the adoption of children who have physical and mental disabilities (Schroedel, 2000). - The states that have the strongest anti-abortion laws are also the states in which women suffer from lower levels of education and higher levels of poverty, as well as from a lower ratio of female-to-male earnings. They also have a lower percentage of women in the legislature and fewer mandates