Planned Parenthood has steadfastly maintained for years that if “safe and legal” abortion were abolished, women would die in unsafe, “back alley” abortions. This has always been obvious nonsense given that "back alley" abortions were carried out by the same people who carry out legal abortions. Women don't go to their milkman for an abortion, do they? Indeed a medic carrying out an illegal operation has a greater incentive to operate safely than one carrying out a legal operation, because his medical insurance will not cover him when operating illegally. However, this silly claim ran into another brick wall recently, one erected by an unexpected source: The Obama administration.

 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's most recent “Abortion Surveillance” contains a wealth of heartbreaking statistics about abortion in the United States, including this one buried literally at the end of the report: In the year 2010, a total of 10 women died from legal abortions. But not a single woman died of illegal abortions in 2010.

 

The report – which was released on Black Friday, as half the nation was clawing itself to death for the best deals and the other half was still recovering from its postThanksgiving hangover – states:

 

Deaths of women associated with complications from abortions for 2011 are being investigated as part of CDC's Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System. In 2010, the most recent year for which data is available, 10 women were identified to have died as a result of complications from known legal induced abortions.

 

No reported deaths were associated with known illegal induced abortions. But wait a second – this is an abortion surveillance for 2011. Why are there no statistics for this year? The report later reiterates, “Possible abortion-related deaths that occurred during 2011–2014 are under investigation.”

 

It's not because there were no deaths caused by legal abortions during that time. Tonya Reaves, Lakisha Wilson, and Jennifer Morbelli all died during legal abortion procedures performed in Chicago, Cleveland, and Maryland, respectively.

 

Put simply: My conjecture is that the Obama administration is too frightened to release the numbers. They are desperately searching for a woman who died from an illegal abortion to include alongside these notorious deaths, especially Tonya Reaves' human butchering at the hands of one of Obama's staunchest political allies.

 

While every death is unique and tragic, these are sadly too common. Since 1973, there have been 421 deaths from legal abortion and 56 deaths from illegal abortions. (The circumstances of 13 deaths were reported as “unknown.”). 

 

That totals 7.51 times more deaths from legal abortions than illegal abortions between 1973 and 2011, an average of 12.89 a year.

 

That is, 86 percent of all expectant mothers' deaths during botched abortions performed since 1973 were attributable to “safe,” legal abortion-on-demand.

 

The last known death from an illegal abortion was in 2004, or one death in seven years. Legal abortion killed 57 women during the same time period. Its roll call of 43 deaths over the last five years is up slightly from 41 over the previous five-year period.

 

This information is included in Table 25, the last chart in the lengthy study. This does not include three states, including the largest, California. The state has just allowed midwives to perform abortions, which pro-life advocates warn will subject women to greater complications (although it will save the abortion industry millions; there is no indication it intends to charge less for its services). This report should kill the “safe and legal” abortion mantra. But you know liberals - facts, i.e. science, is not something to bother them too much