The CDC's Abortion Death Numbers, and What They Mean

The 2008 CDC Abortion Surveillance Summary has been released. The most recent year for which they present abortion deaths is 2007.

Some visitors mistakenly assume that the Cemetery of Choice (COC) includes all abortion deaths in the United States since legalization. As you can see by comparing the number the CDC counted with the number I was able to verify, this is hardly true. Even the CDC's slipshod and spotty efforts uncover more abortion deaths than I can, since I lack access to confidential medical documents that the CDC can review.

Year	CDC	COC
2012	--	1
2011	--	0
2010	--	1
2009	--	3
2008	--	0
2007	6	2
2006	7	3
2005	7	4
2004	8	2
2003	10	4
2002	10	4
2001	7	2
2000	11	5
1999	4	3
1998	9	6
1997	7	4
1996	9	5
1995	4	2
1994	12	8
1993	7	6
1992	10	9
1991	12	8
1990	9	7
1989	13	15
1988	16	15
1987	9	11
1986	11	16
1985	12	10
1984	12	10
1983	12	8
1982	12	8
1981	9	9
1980	10	8
1979	22	8
1978	16	7
1977	21	7
1976	13	6
1975	33	11
1974	32	18
1973	44	8
1972	63	18

Those who claim that the number of abortion deaths would be higher were abortion not "safe and legal" would do well to review abortion mortality numbers since 1940. I marked vertical lines at 1970 (when New York and California became the first states to legalize abortion on demand) and 1973 (when Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion on demand nationwide).

If you're having a hard time spotting it, I'll zoom in a bit on abortion deaths since 1960. Note that I marked New York and California's legalization and Roe vs. Wade for you:

As you can see, legalization did absolutely nothing to change the existing steep downward trend in annual abortion death. Instead, legal abortion deaths started replacing illegal abortion deaths.

Abortion rights advocates who try to claim that legalizing abortion reduces maternal deaths either have never looked at the data, or are deliberately being misleading.

Every woman's death is a tragedy for her and her loved ones. Brushing off legal abortion deaths as being unworthy of notice or concern treats these women's deaths as insignificant and betrays a lack of real concern for the lives of women walking into supposedly safe legal abortion facilities every day.

We should address abortion quackery, not shrug it off.