Safe and Legal in 1972

"Roxanne" was 17 years old when she decided to take advantage of New York's new abortion law, and traveled there from Michigan to have a first-trimester abortion in a doctor's office.

The doctor gave her sedatives and local anesthesia to begin the abortion on May 13, 1972. But before the abortion could be started, Roxanne started to have convulsions and went into cardiac arrest.

Roxanne was taken to an area hospital, but she was declared dead on arrival.

An investigation into the case revealed that the doctor had exceeded the recommended dose of the local anesthesetic.

As you can see from the graph below, abortion deaths were falling dramatically before legalization. If you look closely you can see the points where New York and California legalized abortion on demand, as well as the point where Roe v Wade was handed down. Though annual abortion deaths did indeed fall after legalization, this fall had been in place for decades. To argue that legalization lowered abortion mortality simply isn't supported by the data.