Reported average maternal mortality 1979 through 1986 was 9.1 per 100,000 deliveries, having declined from 11 to 7.4.

Morbidity & Mortality Report, July 1991,
Cent. Dis. Cont., Vol. 40, No. 55-1

If all causes of maternal death, other than those associated with live birth i.e., abortion, tubal pregnancy, molar pregnancy, etc., were excluded. . . . "the maternal mortality for 1985 would be 4.7 deaths per 100,000 live births."

"Induced Termination of Preg . . . ," Council on Scientific
Affairs, AMA; JAMA, Dec. 9, ’92, Vol. 268, No. 22, p. 3231

And the rate has dropped further since the above, but the U.S. Center for Disease Control (see Chapter 17) does not break down their figures. It continues to report a figure for "maternal mortality" that includes abortion and other deaths.

In developed nations, almost never. The National Maternity Hospital in Dublin, Ireland, receives many complicated cases from around that nation and delivers 10% of all births in Ireland. In 10 years (1970-79) it delivered 74,317 births at more than 28 weeks gestation with only one woman dying from a cause related to her pregnancy.

These have been grossly under-reported. The expose’ on this is detailed in Lime 5 published by Life Dynamics. The author and his staff have verified 23 deaths from induced abortion in 1992-93. All were reported to state agencies. There is documentation from state health departments that 18 were reported to the Federal Center for Disease Control. However, the official report of the CDC listed only 2 deaths.

"At Life Dynamics we knew abortion complications were grotesquely under-reported, but attributed it to garden-variety bureaucratic incompetence." But after continuing research, they documented "that the flawed abortion data from the CDC was not from ineptitude but of dishonesty and manipulation" after finding that "a large percentage of CDC employees had direct ties to the abortion industry," they retitled the CDC to stand for "Center for Damage Control" — "The CDC doesn’t oversee abortion, it justifies it."

The claim that relevant statistics can be collected from the place where the abortion was performed "is little short of science fiction."

"Complications following abortions performed in free-standing clinics is one of the most frequent gynecologic emergencies . . . encountered. Even life-endangering complications rarely come to the attention of the physician who performed the abortion unless the incident entails litigation. The statistics presented by Cates represent substantial under- reporting and disregard women’s reluctance to return to a clinic, where, in their mind, they received inadequate treatment."

The main causes are infection, hemorrhage and uterine perforation.

A study from one of the most prestigious medical centers in the world, John Hopkins University, reported:

"Occurrence of genital tract infection following elective abortion is a well-known complication." This institution reports rates up to 5.2% for first trimester abortions and up to 18.5% in midtrimester.

Burkman et al., "Culture and Treatment Results in Endometritis
Following Elective Abortion," Amer. Jour. OB/GYN,
vol. 128, no. 5, 1977, pp. 556-559.

In an underdeveloped country, complications are more frequent and treatment is usually less available and effective.

Infection in the womb and tubes often does permanent damage. The Fallopian tube is a fragile organ, a very tiny bore tube. If infection injures it, it often seals shut. The typical infection involving these organs is pelvic inflammatory disease (PID).

Patients with Chlamydia Trachomatous infection of the cervix (13% in this series) who get induced abortion "run a 23% risk of developing PID."

"Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID) is difficult to manage and often leads to infertility, even with prompt treatment . . . Approximately 10% of women will develop tubal adhesions leading to infertility after one episode of PID, 30% after two episodes, and more than 60% after three episodes."

A. Kodasek, "Artificial Termination of Pregnancy in
Czechoslovakia," Internat’l Jour. GYN/OB, vol. 9, no. 3, 1971

Venereal disease, usually Gonorrhea or Chlamydia, causes PID. This, if present, vastly complicates an induced abortion.

"Chlamydia trachomatous was cultured from the cervix in 70 of 557 women admitted for therapeutic abortion. Among the 70, 22 developed acute PID postoperatively (4% of the total)."

E. Quigstad et al., "PID Associated with C. Trachomatous Infection,
A Prospective Study," British Jour. of Venereal Disease,
vol. 59, no. 3, 1982, pp. 189-192

Another study revealed a 17% incidence of post-abortal Chlamydia infection.

In a classic English study at a university hospital which reported on four years’ experience, "there was a 27% complication rate from infection."

J.A. Stallworthy et al., "Legal Abortion: A Critical Assessment
of its Risks," The Lancet, Dec. 4, 1971

Bleeding is common. Most get by, but some need blood transfusions. The Stallworthy study (above) reported that 9.5% needed transfusions. Most recent studies are reporting smaller percentages.

First, we must know how many women need blood transfusions after getting induced abortions. These figures are hard to come by. The only controlled studies are from university medical centers, which do only a small fraction of all abortions. Over 90% of abortions in the U.S. and varying percentages in other nations are done in free-standing abortion chambers where the medical care is only a faint shadow of the competence of those medical centers. Women who hemorrhage from these abortions are sent to "real" hospitals for transfusions and surgery. The percentage who need transfusions then must remain an estimate as these commercial establishments do not report this.

How many then? Let’s be conservative and say that one in every hundred needs a blood transfusion. If there are 1,600,000 abortions annually in the United States, this means that 1% or 16,000 women were transfused.

Viral hepatitis is transmitted in up to 10% of patients transfused. Ten percent of 16,000 is 1,600 women.

Amer. Assn. Blood Banks and Amer. Red Cross,
Circular Information, 1984, p. 6

An analysis of 300,000 cases of Hepatitis virus infection showed that deaths occurred from three causes: 322 from acute disease, 5100 from cirrhosis, and 1200 from liver cancer. This mortality rate is over 2%.

Two percent of 1600 women means that ultimately 32 deaths result annually from abortions for this reason.

AIDS is another threat. Two percent of AIDS has been acquired by blood transfusions. With recent careful screening techniques, this is now much less. Even so, 200-400 people in developed countries, per year, are still being exposed via blood transfusions.

In underdeveloped nations the AIDs threat ranges from seldom to common.

Blood clots are one of the causes of death to mothers who deliver babies normally. They are also a cause of death in healthy young women who have abortions performed.

Embolism (floating objects in the blood that go to the lungs) is another problem. Childbirth is a normal process, and the body is well prepared for the birth of the child and the separation and expulsion of the placenta. Surgical abortion is an abnormal process, and slices the unripe placenta from the wall of the uterus into which its roots have grown. This sometimes causes the fluid around the baby, or other pieces of tissue or blood clots, to be forced into the mother’s circulation. These then travel to her lungs, causing damage and occasional death. This is also a major cause of maternal deaths from the salt poisoning method of abortion.

For instance, pulmonary thromboembolism (blood clots to the lungs) was the cause of eight mothers dying from abortions, as reported to the U.S. Center for Disease Control.

Also, amniotic fluid embolism has "emerged as an important cause of death from legally induced abortion." Of 15 cases, the risk seems to be greater after three months. Treatment is ineffective."

R. Guidotti et al., Amer. Jour. OB/GYN,
vol. 41, 1981, p. 257

S. Clark, Amniotic Fluid Embolism, the Female Patient,
vol. 14, Aug. ’89, p. 50

This is a sudden drop in blood clotting ability which causes extensive internal bleeding and sometimes death. The classic paper was on hypertonic saline (salt poisoning) abortions (see reference below).

H. Glueck et al., "Hypertonic Saline Abortion,
Correlation with D.I.C.," JAMA, vol. 225, no. 1, July 2, 1973, pp. 28-29

"Saline-induced abortion is now the first or second most common cause of obstetric hypofibrinogenemia." [Same as D.I.C. above].

L. Talbert, Univ. of NC, "DIC More Common Threat with
Use of Saline Abortion," Family Practice News,
vol. 5, no. 19, Oct. 1975

In recent years this method has been seldom used. However, D.I.C. has also been caused by D&E and Prostaglandin abortions.

Yes. For instance:

That’s exactly correct. The official reporting agency for the U.S. government is the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia. Listen to this:

During the two-year stretch of 1991 and ’92, the CDC officially reported only one mother each year dying from induced abortion. In fact, there are 20 documented deaths. Of these, 14 were reported directly to the CDC from state health agencies. The CDC only listed two of them. Mr. Crutcher’s book, Lime 5, which accuses this agency of gross dishonesty and malfeasance in its reporting, is extremely convincing.

M. Crutcher, Life Dynamics, personal communication, July ’96

These figures, often cited by pro-abortionists, are simply false. During the debate on the floor of the U.S. Senate on the Hatch-Eagleton Pro-Life Amendment in 1983, the U.S. Bureau of Vital Statistics provided the data on such deaths.

Its reports showed that you must go back to the pre-Penicillin era to find more than 1,000 maternal deaths per year from illegal and legal abortions combined. The precipitous drop in maternal deaths in the 1950s and ‘60s occurred while abortions were still illegal. Before the first state legalized abortions in 1966, the total deaths were down to 120 per year. By 1972, before the Supreme Court legalized abortion in all 50 states, it was down to 39 per year in the entire U.S. Since legalization, the slow decline has continued, so that now the only difference is that more mothers are dying from legal, rather than illegal abortions.

U.S. BUREAU OF VITAL STATISTICS
CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROL

Taken from U.S. Senate graph

Early on, it was thought that pregnancy in young teenagers was more risky than in older women. But recent studies have shown that teenage mothers have no more risks during pregnancy and labor, and their babies fare just as well as their more mature sisters’ babies, if they have had good prenatal care.

"We have found that teenage mothers, given proper care, have the least complications in childbirth. The younger the mother, the better the birth. If there are more problems, society makes it so, not biology."

"No relationship between mother’s physical growth and maturation and adverse pregnancy course or out-come was demonstrated.

Sukanich et al., "Physical Maturity and Pregnancy
Outcome Under 16 Years," Pediatrics,
vol. 78, no. 1, July 1986, p. 31

Dr. Jerome Johnson of John Hopkins University, and Dr. Felix Heald, Professor of Pediatrics, University of Maryland, agree that the fact that teenage mothers often have low birth weight babies is not due to "a pregnant teen-ager’s biologic destiny." They pointed to the fact that the cause for this almost invariably is due to the lack of adequate prenatal care. "With optimal care, the outcome of an adolescent pregnancy can be as successful as the outcome of a non-adolescent pregnancy."

"The overall incidence of pregnancy complications among adolescents 16 years and younger is similar to that reported for older women."

There is evidence that in 15- to 17-year old women, pregnancy may even be healthier than in older ages.

F. Avey, Canada Col. Family Physicians,
"Pregnant Teens . . ." Family Practice
News, Jan. 15, 1987, p. 14

After years of legalized abortion experience, a pro-abortion professor of OB/GYN at the University of Newcastle-on-Tyne reported on his follow-up, ranging from two to twelve years, of 50 teenage mothers who had been aborted by him. He noted that "the cervix of the young teenager, pregnant for the first time, is invariably small and tightly closed and especially liable to damage on dilatation." He reported on the "rather dismal" results of their 53 subsequent pregnancies:

Six had another induced abortion.

Nineteen had spontaneous miscarriages.

One delivered a stillborn baby at 6 months.

Six babies died between birth and 2 years.

Twenty-one babies survived

"Physical and emotional damage from abortion is greater in a young girl. Adolescent abortion candidates differ from their sexually mature counterparts, and these differences contribute to high morbidity." They have immature cervixes and "run the risk of a difficult, potentially traumatic dilatation." The use of laminaria "in no way mitigates our present concern over the problems of abortion."