When Abortion Was Illegal

When Abortion Was Illegal Major complications from induced abortion are very rare in the United States, occurring in fewer than 1 percent of abortions. The risk of death from child- birth, an uncommon event in industrialized coun- tries, is ten times greater than the mortality risk of abortion. The safety of legal abortion is in stark con- trast to the danger women faced before abortion was decriminalized in the United States in 1973. In the 1950s, for example, there were about 1 million illegal abortions every year, with at least 1,000 deaths per year resulting. Before legalization some courageous and quali- fied providers took considerable personal risks to offer safe procedures to women in need. Women with adequate financial and social resources were some- times able to seek safe abortions in legal settings out- side the United States. Desperation often drove other women to unskilled abortionists working in unsani- tary conditions. Women who survived so-called back- alley abortions of this sort or attempts to self-abort sometimes suffered painful chronic illnesses, lost the ability to have children, or experienced trauma that affected their psychological health and well-being