Abortion Deaths in the 1970s

In response to a comment about Abortion Deaths in 1971, I'm gathering the entire decade in one place. Here, to place the mortality trends in their accurate context, is a chart showing abortion deaths from 1965-1985. Legal abortions are orange, illegal abortions are purple, and "undetermined" or "unknown" -- a new category developed by the CDC for abortion deaths in which they were unable to determine if the person who performed the fatal abortion was a properly licensed physician -- are grey.

The CDC doesn't publish abortion mortality data prior to 1972, but I did find data that Physicians for Life got from the National Center for Health Statistics. I've assessed elsewhere how accurate the data are, looking at an intensive study in Minnesota and another in California, and though they're not 100% complete, they're not radically off, and the trends (falling except for the 1950s) are accurate. From 1971 onward, my numbers are from the Centers for Disease Control.

Remember that "illegal" deaths as counted by the CDC (1972 and later) can actually be cases like Myrta Baptiste -- cases in which the woman thought the abortion was legal and safe, but after she died the CDC discovered that her doctor's license wasn't currently valid and so counted it as illegal.

1970 - The NCHS noted 119 induced abortion deaths for 1970 -- 10 legal, 109 illegal. (Spontaneous abortions are miscarriages.) I have been able to document 13 deaths -- all from legal abortions in 1970. This means the NCIS missed at least three deaths.

1971 - The NCHS noted 90 induced abortion deaths for 1971 -- 15 legal, 75 illegal. (Spontaneous abortions are miscarriages.) I have been able to document 23 deaths from abortions in 1971. That means the NCHS found 63 more deaths than I know about.

1972 - The CDC counts 65 -- 24 legal, 29 illegal, and 2 unknown. I know of 16 abortion deaths in 1972, which means the CDC has at least 49 other deaths I don't know about.

1973 (Roe legalizes nationwide) - The CDC counts 47 -- 25 legal, 19 illegal, and 3 unknown. I know of 8 abortion deaths in 1973, which means the CDC has at least 29 other deaths I don't know about.

1974 - The CDC counts 33 -- 26 legal, 6 illegal, and 1 unknown. I know of 13 abortion deaths in 1974, which means the CDC has at least 20 other deaths I don't know about.

1975 - The CDC counts 34 -- 29 legal, 4 illegal, and 1 unknown. I know of 10 abortion deaths in 1975, one of which the CDC won't count, which means the CDC has at least 25 other deaths I don't know about. On the other hand, I have at least one that the CDC didn't count, because they refuse to lay responsibility on abortion doctors for their inexcusable failure to diagnose ectopic pregnancies.

1976 - The CDC counts 14 -- 11 legal, 2 illegal, and 1 unknown. I know of 5 abortion deaths in 1976, which means the CDC has at least 9 other deaths I don't know about.

1977 - The CDC counts 21 -- 17 legal and 4 illegal. (One of these was Myrta Baptiste, who had her abortion at the same clinic as three other women who died in the 1970s, but is counted as illegal even though she thought it was legal because her doctor's license was suspended at the time.) I know of 6 abortion deaths in 1977, which means that the CDC knows of 15 other deaths.

1978 - The CDC counts 16 -- 9 legal and 7 illegal. I know of 6 abortion deaths in 1978, one of which was related to an abortionist's failure to diagnose an ectopic pregnancy and thus not counted by the CDC. That means that there are 11 other abortion deaths for 1978 that I don't know about.

1979 - The CDC counts 22 -- all legal. I know of 8, which means that the CDC knows of 14 that I don't know about.

Some of you may be saying, "Why should the CDC count ectopic pregnancy deaths as abortion deaths?" The answer is simple: Ectopic pregnancy deaths after abortion attempts simply should not happen.

I hope this puts abortion deaths in the 1970s in context. If you go to the individual years and read the women's individual stories, the combination of statistical and anecdotal data should help you come to an understanding of how and why women die from induced abortions in the United States.