How realistic are those numbers?

Exactly how realistic are the claims that 5,000 to 10,000 women were dying from botched abortions every year prior to legalization? Well, I checked the vital statistics, and if we look at females aged 15-44 in 1960, a full 13 years before Roe vs. Wade, there were 49,106 deaths. If 5,000 of them were due to illegal abortion, that would mean that 10 percent of deaths among girls and women of childbearing age were due to illegal abortions. If 10,000 were dying from botched abortions, then 20 percent of all women of childbearing age in the US were dying due to botched criminal abortions. That's one in five, people!

The official total deaths from pregnancy and childbirth complications for the year was 1,579. If the 5,000 to 10,000 deaths claim was accurate, that would mean that 3 to 6 times more women were dying unnoticed from illegal abortions than were dying from all detected pregnancy related causes combined.

Is this really believable?

Here are the real numbers: