Researcher Maureen Muldoon put together a table documenting the number of deaths from legal abortion from 1970 to 1985.
Note that there were 39 illegal abortion deaths in 1972. Legal abortions were killing only slightly fewer women than illegal ones.
And there may have been more legal abortion deaths that weren’t reported.
United States’ Statistics
in 1970, there were 36 legal abortion deaths
in 1971, there were 54 legal abortion deaths
in 1972, there were 24 legal abortion deaths
in 1973, there were 25 legal abortion deaths
in 1974, there were 26 legal abortion deaths
in 1975, there were 29 legal abortion deaths
in 1976, there were 11 legal abortion deaths
in 1977, there were 17 legal abortion-related deaths
in 1978, there were nine legal abortion deaths
in 1979, there were 18 legal abortion deaths
between 1980 and 1985, there were 54 legal abortion-related deaths
Table 2: Number of Legal Abortions, Number of Associated Deaths and Mortality Rate Per 100,000 Legal Abortions
Maureen Muldoon Abortion Debate in the United States and Canada (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1991) 9
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