Health

Local doctor outlines how legal abortions have saved lives since 1973

“As has been said before, ending legal abortions does not stop them from occurring; it just stops them from occurring in safe medical settings.”

Rally goers use signs to express their thoughts during a protest at the Massachusetts State House in Boston, MA on May 03. Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff

By Marta Hill

2 minutes to read

Discussions and debates about the legal status of abortion have raged in recent days, and Dr. Jeremy Faust, a physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, has joined in, bringing historical context and data to show how legal abortions have been saving lives for almost 50 years.

End of Roe?

Faust, in a post on Inside Medicine, highlighted four main points to show the effects of legalizing abortions: a decrease in maternal deaths, fewer abortions over state lines, access to safe abortions for women of color, and a moved up timeline that led to a higher share of abortions earlier in pregnancy. 

“If abortion is banned in many states, which seems likely, and trends replicate pre-1973 findings, fewer legal abortions will occur,” Faust wrote. “But it isn’t at all obvious that fewer abortions overall will take place; they’ll just be harder to obtain, less safe, and more expensive, and will occur later in pregnancy and farther from home. That’s not progress.”

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The doctor outlined four points illustrating how legal abortions have saved lives:

  1. A drop in number of maternal deaths

Faust pointed to a steep drop off in the number of maternal deaths spurred by the Roe decision in 1973. Before abortion was legal throughout the country there were “hundreds of documented maternal deaths caused by abortion each year in the 1960s and early 1970s,” according to Faust.

By 1976, that number dropped to 16. 

The South saw the biggest year-over-year change, with maternal deaths caused by abortion dropping by 56% between 1972 and 1973, Faust said. 

“As has been said before, ending legal abortions does not stop them from occurring; it just stops them from occurring in safe medical settings,” Faust said. 

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Overall, in the five years after Roe, Faust said maternal deaths caused by abortion fell 80% compared to the five years before Roe.

2. Fewer abortions occurred across state lines

Ending the protections of Roe v. Wade will largely limit safe abortion access to wealthy people who can travel, Faust said.

Before Roe, Faust said 44% of legal abortions occurred in a place other than the patient’s home state. 

But by 1980, only 7% of legal abortions happened over state lines.

“What will happen, if history repeats itself, is that the end of Roe will mean the return of horrific desperate attempts to end pregnancies at home, or in ‘back alleys,’” Faust wrote. 

3. Greater access to safe abortions for people of color

Before the Roe decision, non-white people accounted for 23% of documented legal abortions, Faust said.

That figure rose after Roe, hovering in the 30-35% range in the 1980s and 44% by the end of the century. 

4. Legal abortions took place earlier in pregnancies

Faust said the years after Roe saw abortions move earlier in pregnancy. In 1972, the year before the Roe decision, 34% of legal abortions occurred before the 9th week of pregnancy. 

That number rose to 52% by 1980 and 58% by 1999. 

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“Meanwhile, the share of legal abortions performed between 9 and 20 weeks dropped right after Roe was decided, and remained fairly stable for the rest of the century,” Faust wrote. 

Abortions after 20 weeks stayed steady, accounting for about 1% of legal abortions both before and after 1973, Faust said. 

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