Legalize abortion and secret abortions 10,000 women have died from them." The data would indicate that legalized abortion is a godsend for women. This essay will examine the truth or falsity of the above quote in all its complexity. True? Or false? For the obvious reason that clandestine abortions have never been reported statistics, nor numbers to report. Therefore, if someone tells you that there have been X number of illegal abortions somewhere in a certain period, they are guessing -life could guess 100,000, but both are guessing There is only one reported figure that can lead us to an accurate estimate of the number of illegal abortions and that is the number of women who have died as a result of abortions. illegal Many nations report only one figure for women who die, grouping together deaths of women from miscarriage (miscarriage), legally induced abortion, and illegally induced abortion. Such statistics are not helpful. The United States has reported such deaths separately since the 1940s, so we know the number of deaths due to illegal abortions. Well! Now, if we knew how many illegal abortions were needed to cause one death, we could easily calculate the total number of illegal abortions. The problem is that no one has any idea how many there have been, and so we're back to square one. How many women died? The chart used on the floor of the US Senate during the tumultuous abortion debate in 1981 was compiled from official US statistics and was not disputed by pro-abortion forces. It shows that after penicillin became available to control infections, the number of deaths stabilized during the 1950s at about 250 per year. e.g. 1956 = 250. Note that by 1966, with abortion still illegal in all states, the number of deaths had steadily dropped to half that number - 120, due to new and better antibiotics, better surgery and the creation of intensive care units in hospitals. This is in the face of an increasing population. Between 1967 and 1970, sixteen states legalized abortion. In most cases it was limited, only for rape, incest and severe fetal handicap (the mother's life was legal in all states).