How Many Illegal Abortions occurred in the USA?
No one knows. Why? Because they were not reported. There are no statistics, no records anywhere. Therefore, if anyone tells you that there were X numbers of illegal abortions somewhere at a certain time, they are just guessing. There is only one reported figure that we have: the number of women who died from illegal abortions. Since the 1940s, the USA has reported maternal deaths from illegal abortion. The following chart was used on the floor of the US Senate during the tumultuous debate on abortion in 1981. It was compiled from the official US statistics of the National Center for Health Statistics and was not challenged by the pro-abortion forces. Note that after Penicillin became available to control infections, the number of deaths stabilized during the 1950s at about 250 deaths per year. By 1966, with abortion still illegal in all states, the number of deaths had dropped steadily to about 120 per year. The reason was new and better antibiotics, better surgical procedures, and the
