psuvm%cjc@psuvax.UUCP (05/10/84)
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A report entitled "Legal Abortion: The Public Health Record" was
published in "Science", March 26,1982. I would like to repeat several
exerpts which are relevant to recent topics here.
1. (on the relative risks of abortion or pregnancy)
"Legal abortion has lower morbidity and mortality rates than does
pregnancy continued to term. From 10 to 15 percent of term births are
by cesarean section, whereas only .07 percent of first-trimester abortions
entail intra-abdominal operations, and second-trimester abortion methods
lead to major surgery in only .1 to .2 percent of cases. Thus, the risk
of having to undergo major surgery for a complication of a legal abortion
is approximately 1/100 that of carrying a pregnancy to term. The rates
of severe psychiatric sequelae are lower for women who obtain legal
abortions than for those who have normal pregnancies and a live birth.
The risk - adjusted for age and race - of dying from an abortion induced
during the first 15 weeks of pregnancy is one-seventh the risk of
dying from pregnancy and childbirth.
The risk to the woman of continuing rather than terminating her
pregnancy may be still greater when the pregnancy is unwanted.
Women with negative attitudes toward their pregnancies have higher
postpartum infection and hemorrhage rates than women with more
favorable attitudes."
2. (on timing of abortions)
"In 1970 nearly one-fourth of all abortions were performed at 13
weeks or later. By 1978, fewer than one in ten were performed at later
than 13 weeks and more than half were done before 8 weeks."
The entire article covers more than 4 pages, with almost another page
of references, and would be useful to anyone wanting factual information
on abortion.
C. Clark
(cjc@psuvm - Bitnet)