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Abortion and mortality rates (view source)
Revision as of 00:07, October 21, 2010
, 00:07, October 21, 2010Added historical data
'''Abortion Mortality''', or abortion-related death, is defined by the Centers for Disease Control as, "death resulting from a) a direct complication of an abortion, b) an indirect complication caused by the chain of events initiated by abortion, or c) aggravation of a preexisting condition by the physiologic or psychologic effects of the abortion."
'''Abortion Mortality''', or abortion-related death, is defined by the Centers for Disease Control as, "death resulting from a) a direct complication of an abortion, b) an indirect complication caused by the chain of events initiated by abortion, or c) aggravation of a preexisting condition by the physiologic or psychologic effects of the abortion."
==Centers for Disease Control==
==Historical Trends==
===Illegal Abortion Mortality===
Claims that tens of thousands of women lost their lives annually from [[illegal abortion]] persist to this day.<ref>[http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/book/companion.asp?compID=100&id=20 "The Impact of Illegal Abortion" from Abortion Access Project]</ref>
The original source of the claim that 5,000 - 10,000 women died from criminal abortions annually in the US was a book -- ''Abortion, Spontaneous and Induced'' -- published in 1936 by Dr. Frederick Taussig, a leading proponent of legalization of abortion. Taussig himself, at a conference in 1942, apologized for using "the wildest estimates" to generate a bogus number.<ref>[http://www.thefreelibrary.com/A+Primer+on+%22Abortion+Distortion%22.-a0124171531 "A Primer on 'Abortion Distortion'", National Right to Life Committee]</ref>
Peer-reviewed articles published in the decades before ''Roe'' gave varied estimates of the number of abortion deaths annually, but all tended to confirm the numbers cited by Mary Calderone, who was then Medical Director of Planned Parenthood. Calderone reported on a conference studying abortion in America. She indicated that in 1957, there were 260 abortion deaths nationwide. That number included all abortions: legal, illegal, and spontaneous.<ref>Mary Calderone, "Illegal abortion as a public health issue," ''American Journal of Public Health'', July 1960</ref> These numbers were based on alerting doctors, law enforcement, coroners, and hospital administrators, along with public records officials, of their responsibility to report these deaths.
===The Impact of Legalization===
Abortion advocates, including those at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, credit the legalization of abortion with a sharp decline in abortion deaths, as in this example:<ref name=mmwr>[http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm4838a2.htm "Achievements in Public Health, 1900-1999: Healthier Mothers and Babies" ''Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report'', October 01, 1999]</ref>
<blockquote>
The legalization of induced abortion beginning in the 1960s contributed to an 89% decline in deaths from septic illegal abortions during 1950-1973.
</blockquote>
What the authors fail to note is that abortion mortality had been falling since at least since 1940, when public health officials started tabulating abortion mortality separately from other causes of maternal mortality. [http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_PtijYSkNn3A/RxcsOA7tDVI/AAAAAAAAAF4/xH1_7hQmg3Y/s1600-h/chapter27_1.gif This graph] illustrates when sulfa drugs and penicillin were introduced, as well as two major landmarks in abortion legalization: the legalization of abortion on demand in [[New York]] and [[California]] (1970) and the ''Roe vs. Wade'' decision striking down abortion laws nationwide (1973).
The authors also fail to note that abortion mortality did not improve overall during the 1950s. The decline in abortion deaths slowed, then reversed, before resuming the downward trend in 1960 -- a full decade before the first states legalized on-demand abortion.
==Current Data on Mortality Rates==
===Centers for Disease Control===
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control first began specifically tracking abortion mortality data in 1972.<ref name="CDC1972">Centers for Disease Control Abortion Surveillance Annual Summary 1972</ref> "Data were collected through the cooperation of personnel in charge of vital statistics in the state health departments. Reports were received from all 50 states, New York City, and the District of Columbia." They investigated and tallied 19 legal abortion deaths and 35 illegal abortion deaths, but did not explain how they distinguished between legal and illegal abortions.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control first began specifically tracking abortion mortality data in 1972.<ref name="CDC1972">Centers for Disease Control Abortion Surveillance Annual Summary 1972</ref> "Data were collected through the cooperation of personnel in charge of vital statistics in the state health departments. Reports were received from all 50 states, New York City, and the District of Columbia." They investigated and tallied 19 legal abortion deaths and 35 illegal abortion deaths, but did not explain how they distinguished between legal and illegal abortions.
Strangely, in the 1992 Abortion Surveillance Summary, the CDC suddenly tallied 12 additional abortion deaths they'd failed to count in previous years, with no explanation as to how they'd suddenly uncovered these deaths. There are similar additions of five previously uncounted deaths from prior years added to the 2000 Abortion Surveillance Summary, again with no explanation of how these deaths had previously escaped the notice of a data collection system that the CDC claims is noting 94% of all abortion deaths nationwide.<ref>[http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/108/3/200.abstract Cates, W., et. al., Assessment of Surveillance and Vital Statistics Data for Monitoring Abortion Mortality, United States, 1972–1975", Centers for Disease Control</ref> The 4 abortion deaths of 9 that they missed the first time they released mortality data for 1990 means that their initial efforts found only 44% of abortion deaths.
Strangely, in the 1992 Abortion Surveillance Summary, the CDC suddenly tallied 12 additional abortion deaths they'd failed to count in previous years, with no explanation as to how they'd suddenly uncovered these deaths. There are similar additions of five previously uncounted deaths from prior years added to the 2000 Abortion Surveillance Summary, again with no explanation of how these deaths had previously escaped the notice of a data collection system that the CDC claims is noting 94% of all abortion deaths nationwide.<ref>[http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/108/3/200.abstract Cates, W., et. al., Assessment of Surveillance and Vital Statistics Data for Monitoring Abortion Mortality, United States, 1972–1975", Centers for Disease Control</ref> The 4 abortion deaths of 9 that they missed the first time they released mortality data for 1990 means that their initial efforts found only 44% of abortion deaths.
==Criticism of CDC Numbers==
===Criticism of CDC Numbers===
In 2000, researcher David Reardon published [http://www.afterabortion.org/PAR/V8/n2/abortiondeaths.html The Cover-Up: Why U.S. Abortion Mortality Statistics Are Meaningless]. Reardon noted that the public health officials the CDC looks to for abortion mortality data are not doing a very thorough job:
In 2000, researcher David Reardon published [http://www.afterabortion.org/PAR/V8/n2/abortiondeaths.html The Cover-Up: Why U.S. Abortion Mortality Statistics Are Meaningless]. Reardon noted that the public health officials the CDC looks to for abortion mortality data are not doing a very thorough job:
Reardon also cites a memo from the Commissioner of Health "identifying another 146 abortion-related deaths for that same time period outside of New York. Combined with the 30 deaths in New York City, that is 176 abortion-related deaths in all--419 percent higher than was reported in the official CDC numbers."
Reardon also cites a memo from the Commissioner of Health "identifying another 146 abortion-related deaths for that same time period outside of New York. Combined with the 30 deaths in New York City, that is 176 abortion-related deaths in all--419 percent higher than was reported in the official CDC numbers."
==What Are The Real Numbers?==
===What Are The Real Numbers?===
If we trust New York City data -- that there really were 30 abortion deaths during 1981 - 1984 -- and the New York City abortion mortality rate was the same as the mortality rate in the rest of the country, that would mean that there were 385 abortion deaths in the US during 1981 - 1984, rather than the 42 the CDC counted. That would mean the CDC is counting only about 11% of abortion deaths -- roughly the number we'd expect them to find if Clarisse Green and the state vital records offices are to be believed, and the CDC is getting abortion mortality data from a sampling of 10% of the nation's death certificates, then assuming that this sample represents all abortion deaths and that all abortion deaths are coded on death certificates in such a way that the NCHS computers notice them and forward them to the CDC.
If we trust New York City data -- that there really were 30 abortion deaths during 1981 - 1984 -- and the New York City abortion mortality rate was the same as the mortality rate in the rest of the country, that would mean that there were 385 abortion deaths in the US during 1981 - 1984, rather than the 42 the CDC counted. That would mean the CDC is counting only about 11% of abortion deaths -- roughly the number we'd expect them to find if Clarisse Green and the state vital records offices are to be believed, and the CDC is getting abortion mortality data from a sampling of 10% of the nation's death certificates, then assuming that this sample represents all abortion deaths and that all abortion deaths are coded on death certificates in such a way that the NCHS computers notice them and forward them to the CDC.