In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade
that a woman’s constitutional right to privacy includes
her right to abortion. Since then, opponents of
women’s health have been working tirelessly to chip
away at abortion access by passing restrictions under
the guise of protecting patient safety. As Congress
considers policy on women’s health, it’s critical to
listen to doctors and medical experts who know that
legal abortion is safe and that better birth control
access reduces the need for abortion.
Abortion is one of the safest medical procedures
performed in the United States. Data, including
from the CDC, show that abortion has over a 99
percent sa
f
ety record.
• Abortion has no impact on a woman’s future fertility,
1
abortion does no harm to women’s mental health
2
and
abortion has no relationship to breast cancer.
3
• Technology in the medical field has evolved over
decades, and abortion today is safely provided
in doctor’s offices and outpatient health centers.
Abortion is similar, in terms of level of risk, to
other gynecological procedures that take place in
doctor’s offices every day, including completion of
miscarriage, loop electrosurgical excision procedure
1.
Rowland Hogue, Carol J., et al. (2009). “Answering Questions about
Long-Term Outcomes.” Pp. 252-279 in Maureen Paul, et al., eds.,
Man
agem
ent of Unintended and Abnormal Pregnancy. Chichester,
West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.
2. AMRC — Academy of Medical Royal Colleges. (2011). Induced
Abortion and Mental Health — A Systematic Review of the Mental
Health Outcomes of Induced Abortion, Including Their Prevalence
and Asso-ciated Factors. London: Academy of Medical Royal
Colleges/National Collaborating Center for Mental Health.
3. ACS — American Cancer Society. (2014). Is Abortion Linked to Breast
Cancer? [Online.] http://www.cancer.org/cancer/breastcancer/more-
information/is-abortion-linked-to-breast-cancer, accessed
January 6, 2015.
(“LEEP”) to remove abnormal cells from the cervix,
4
hysteroscopy,
5,6
and endometrial ablation to treat
abnormal uterine bleeding.
7
• Abortion providers, including those at Planned
Parenthood, base their medical care on the expert
recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention and the American College of
Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
• Studies show women in the U.S. experience major
complications less than one percent of the time.
8,9,10
In those rare cases when complications do occur, they
are similar to those that may occur from miscarriage,
which ob-gyns and other health care professionals
treat every day.
4. Apgar, Barbara S., et al. (2013). “Gynecologic Procedures: Colpos-
copy, Treatment of Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia, and Endometrial
Assessment.” American Family Physician, 87(12), 836-843.
5. Wortman, Morris, et al. (2013). “Operative Hysteroscopy in an Ofce-
Based Surgical Setting: Review of Patient Safety and Satisfaction in
414 Cases.” Journal of Minimally Invasive Gynecology, 20(1), 56–63.
6. van Kerkvoorde, T.C., et al. (2012). “Long-Term Complications of Ofce
Hysteroscopy: Analysis of 1028 Cases.” Journal of Minimally Invasive
Gynecology, 19(4), 494-497.
7. Overton, Christopher et al. (1997). “A National Survey of the Com-
plications of Endometrial Destruction for Menstrual Disorders: the
MISTLETOE Study.” British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology,
104(12), 1351-1359.
8. Boonstra, Heather D., et al. (2006). Abortion In Women’s Lives. New
York: Guttmacher Institute.
9. Henshaw, Stanley K. (1999). “Unintended Pregnancy and Abortion:
A Public Health Perspective.” Pp. 11-22 in Maureen Paul, et al., eds.,
A Clinician’s Guide to Medical and Surgical Abortion. New York:
Churchill Livingstone.
10. Upadhyay, Ushma D., et al. (2015). “Incidence of Emergency
Department Visits and Complications After Abortion.”Obstetrics &
Gynecology, 125(1), 175-83.
Protect Safe and Legal Abortion
Studies Show Abortion Has 99 Percent Safety Record; One of Safest Medical
Procedures Performed in U.S.
1
Studies show that three in ten women in the U.S. has
had a safe, legal abortion.
11
Women who decide on
abortion receive support throughout the process
from a medical professional.
• Abortion is one aspect of health care for women.
Today, half of all pregnancies in the U.S. each year are
unintended and four in 10 of these are ended by safe
and legal abortions.
12
• Prior to an abortion, a woman who is thinking about
ending her pregnancy receives accurate and unbiased
information from a health care professional about
her options: parenting, adoption and abortion. The
patient completes a medical history and has blood
testing and an ultrasound when needed to date the
pregnancy. She learns how the process works, the
range of normal symptoms to expect and the warning
signs to look for.
• Just like any outpatient medical facility, health centers
that provide abortion have the stafng, equipment
and referral arrangements in place to handle
emergencies in the unlikely event of a complication.
• Women who choose abortion can reach a medical
professional 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to answer
questions. In the extremely rare case of a complication
that requires a hospital visit, emergency room medical
professionals are trained to provide the care and
intervention that a woman might need.
Abortion later in pregnancy is very rare and often
happens in the kind of situations in which a woman
and her doctor need every medical option available.
• About one percent of abortions are performed at or
after 21 weeks’ gestation.
13
The rate of complications
increases as a woman’s pregnancy continues, but
these complications remain very unlikely. Women
in the U.S. experience serious complications from
abortion less than 1 percent of the time.
11. Jones, Rachel K. and Megan L. Kavanaugh. (2011). “Changes in
Abortion Rates between 2000 and 2008 and Lifetime Incidence of
Abortion.” Obstetrics & Gynecology, 117(6), 1358-1366.
12. Finer, Lawrence B. and Mia R. Zolna. (2014). “Shifts in Intended and
Unintended Pregnancies in the United States, 2001–2008.” American
Journal of Public Health, 104(S1), S43-S48.
13. CDC. (2014, November 28). “Abortion Surveillance — United States,
2011.” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 63 (SS-11). [Online].
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss6311a1.htm?s_
cid=ss6311a1_w, accessed January 7, 2015..].http://www.cdc.gov/
mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss6208a1.htm?s_cid=ss6208a1_w.
• Although abortions later in pregnancy are rare, these
often occur due to complex circumstances. These
complexities underscore the need for women to have
information and access to their full range of abortion
options, in consultation with a medical provider and
without political interference.
The abortion rate in 2011 was the lowest rate since
1973,
14
and much of this decrease is attributable to
improved contraception.
• Publicly funded family planning services available
through Medicaid and Title X of the U.S. Public Health
Service Act help women prevent 2.2 million
unintended pregnancies each year. Without these
family planning services, the numbers of unintended
pregnancies and abortions would be nearly two-thirds
higher than they are now.
15
• Research estimates national implementation of the
Affordable Care Act’s birth control benefit could
prevent 41-71 percent of abortions performed annually
in the U.S. and reduce the birth rate among teens
dramatically.
16
• Because of better birth control access and technology,
maternal and infant health have improved dramatically,
the infant death rate has plummeted,
17,18
and women
have been able to fulfill increasingly diverse
educational, political, professional and
social aspirations.
19
14. Jones, Rachel K., and Jenna Jerman. (2014). “Abortion Incidence and
Service Availability in the United States, 2011.” Perspectives on Sexual
and Reproductive Health, 46(1), 3-14. [Online]. http://www.guttmacher.
org/pubs/journals/psrh.46e0414.pdf, accessed January 7, 2015.
15. Guttmacher Institute. (2014). Fact Sheet: Publicly Funded Family Plan-
ning Services in the United States. New York: Guttmacher Institute.
[Online]. https://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_contraceptive_serv.
html, accessed January 7, 2015,
16. Peipert, Jeffrey F., et al. (2012). “Preventing Unintended Pregnancies
by Providing No-Cost Contraception.” Obstetrics & Gynecology,
120(6), 1291-1297
17. NCHS — National Center for Health Statistics. (1967). Vital Statistics
of the United States, 1965: Vol. II Mortality, Part A. Washington, D.C.:
U.S. Government Printing Ofce (GPO)
18. MacDorman, Marian F., et al. (2013). “Recent declines in infant mortali-
ty in the United States, 2005–2011.” NCHS Data Brief, (120). Hyattsville,
MD: National Centerfor Health Statistics. [Online]. http://www.cdc.gov/
nchs/data/databriefs/db120.htm, accessed January 7, 2015.
19. Jones, Rachel K. (2011). Beyond Birth Control: The Overlooked
Benets of Oral Contraceptive Pills. New York: Guttmacher Institute.
[Online].http:// www.guttmacher.org/pubs/Beyond-Birth-Control.
pdf, accessed December 30, 2014.
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