Deaths from Legal Abortions

Maternal deaths
YearDeaths from
Legal Abortions
1958-62 5
1963-67 4
1968-69 4
1970 36
1971 54
1972 24
1973 25
1974 26
1975 29
1976 11
1977 21
1978 9
1979 18
1980 9
1981 7
1982-84 34
1985-8726

Note: The government stopped collecting these statistics in 1987 due to the lack of accurate reporting of deaths as a result of legal abortions.

Sources: National Center for Health Statistics. Health, United States, 1994. Hyattsville, Maryland: Public Health Service, 1995.

Abortion Surveillance 1985, Center for Disease Control, Table #18.

Induced Abortion: World Review 1983, by Christopher Tietze, The Population Council, p 103