From: Larry Margolis <margoli@watson.ibm.com>
Subject: Abortion related mortality
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 17:17:58 GMT
Reply-To: margoli@watson.ibm.com
Disclaimer: This posting represents the poster's views, not necessarily those of IBM
Organization: The Village Waterbed

In  <BvCr49.KKs.2@cs.cmu.edu>  garvin+@cs.cmu.edu (Susan Garvin) writes:
> He'll probably post the CDC figures on abortion deaths before Roe,
> and claim that they represent the real number of women who died
> from complications following illegal abortions.  Many pro-
> forcers cite this statistic and claim that it's accurate while
> at the same time claiming that current CDC figures on deaths
> from legal abortions are not accurate.  They claim that the
> CDC correctly found the cause of death in each case, even though
> it was highly likely that the women themselves, their doctors,
> or their families went to great lengths to conceal the true
> cause of death.  (At the same time, they claim that clinics
> are able to conceal abortion related deaths today with ease.)

Susan - do you really think anyone would be so intellectually dishonest
as to do that?  Not to mention stupid enough to believe that anyone
would fall for that?

Well, maybe...

In  <warren.717863335@beloved>  warren@pws.ma30.bull.com (Warren Lavallee) writes:
>
> Speaking of the safety of abortion, I thought I would post some
> facts about abortion.  All the references have footnotes in []'s
> that tell exactly where they came from.  The bottom line is that
> any kind of abortion is not guaranteed safe.

*Nothing* is "guaranteed safe".  Nevertheless, abortion is, I believe,
the safest elective surgery around, and is an order of magnitude safer
than carrying to term.

> any ninety percent of all late-trimester abortions result in problems
> demanding serious medical attention.

Well, this isn't too surprising, since third-trimester abortions are only
*performed* in cases demanding serious medical attention.

> A number of studies conducted by some of the finest medical
> research institutions all around the globe confirm Dean's
> conclusion that "there is no such thing as a safe and legal
> abortion.":

Don't you mean, "there *was" no such thing"?  You posted references
from up to 20 years ago.  The most recent one was over 10 years ago,
and the average date was in 1975.  For example:
>      [L. Talbert, "DIC More Common Threat with Use of Saline Abortion,"
>      Family Practive News, 5:19 (October, 1975)]

Hey - maybe that's why they don't *do* saline abortions any more.
Welcome to the 90's.

--   The risk of death associated with childbirth is about 11
     times as high as that associated with abortion.

--   The risk of complications with abortion is minimal --
     less than 1% of all abortion patients experience a major
     comlication associated with the procedure, such as a
     serious pelvic infection, hemorrhage requiring a blood
     transfusion or unintended major surgery.

--   The risk of death associated with abortion decreased
     more than fivefold from 1973 to 1985, with 3.4 deaths per
     100,000 legal abortions in 1973 to 0.4 in 1985.

--   There is no evidence of problems with later childbearing
     among women who have an early abortion performed by
     the most common method - vacuum aspiration.

Source:  "Facts in Brief:  Abortion in the United States."
published by the Alan Guttmacher Institute.

Larry Margolis, MARGOLI@YKTVMV (Bitnet), margoli@watson.IBM.com (Internet)