Dr. David Reardon of the Elliot Institute, has reported a new study by international health experts disclosing that 94 percent of maternal deaths associated with abortion are not identifiable from death certificates alone, but rather require the linking of death certificates to the deceased woman’s medical history. Researchers from the National Research & Development Center for Welfare and Health in Finland completed the study. This study is just one of a series of studies done among women in Finland and California, demonstrating an elevated risk of death following abortion.

For over thirty years, the mantra of the pro-aborts has been that abortion is safer than childbirth, originally reported as being 23 times safer, more recent claims refer to a rate of abortion being 6 times safer than childbirth. The major contention among pro-life doctors has been that comparing the mortality of abortion with the mortality of pregnancy is comparing apples to oranges.

In 1982, Dr. Matthew Bulfin, obstetrician-gynecologist (now deceased), founder of American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists and at-large board member of National Right to Life, suggested that a more valid study of abortion mortality would be obtained from comparing the experience of women undergoing first trimester induced abortions with an equal number of women experiencing miscarriages during early pregnancy. The stages in each category would be similar. He also noted that spontaneous abortion (miscarriage) is a natural occurrence and treatment does not consist of artificial dilation of the cervix nor forcible separation of the placenta from the uterine wall as is done in surgical abortion.

Dr. Thomas Hailers, an obstetrician-gynecologist and specialist in reproductive medicine affiliated with Creighton University school of Medicine, reported in 1983 that comparing abortion mortality statistics for the first twelve weeks of pregnancy with maternal mortality during the entire course of pregnancy, childbirth and three to six months after childbirth will always appear to show abortion mortality less compared to childbirth. But when abortion during the second twenty weeks of pregnancy was compared with mortality related to the second twenty weeks of pregnancy, the maternal mortality rate from induced abortion is higher. The merits occur from the fact that equal or near equal medical entities are being compared. There are many differences between the two, said Dr. Hilgers. The most significant difference from a statistical point of view is the fetal survival ratio associated with full term pregnancy as opposed to the fetal death associated with induced abortion.

Robert G. Marshall researcher for American Life League, published a study on the subject wherein he reported that intrinsic factors between abortion and childbirth differ by intent (abortion intends to destroy offspring; childbirth aims to deliver live offspring), duration (most abortions occur before twelve weeks, childbirth usually occurs at about 40 weeks), method (abortion is a surgical procedure – childbirth usually is not), and manner (abortion is artificially induced – childbirth is not). It is also important to note that there is no mandatory national requirement for reporting either abortions or their related complications and maternal deaths. Furthermore, abortionists are in no position to publicize their own surgical problems and often have no knowledge of aftercare sought elsewhere by their abortion patients.

Despite that, the CDC claims that it is able to identify 90 percent of abortion deaths. However, Kevin Sherlock, a writer and reporter who specializes in public record research, confirmed at least 30 percent more than the CDC reported for the decade of the 80’s. An article in the Wall Street Journal in 1996 by Candace C. Cranial, entitled “Legal but not safe,” stated that the CDC reported only two abortion-related deaths for 1991 and 1992, one for each year. Anti-abortion groups can provide death certificates and autopsy reports showing at least 20 abortion-related deaths for the same period.

Planned Parenthood and their research arm, the Alan Guttmacher Institute, continue to claim the safety of induced abortion over childbirth, comparing only death certificates for abortion and death certificates for childbirth, figures used by the Centers for Disease Control. Mark Crutcher of Life Dynamics has charged conflicts of interests at the Centers for Disease Control abortion surveillance unit, because the top physicians are outspoken advocates for expanding abortion services and are also practicing abortion providers.

In the recent article mentioned above, Dr. David Reardon, examining the new data on elevated death rates following abortion, criticizes the CDC’s resistance to adopting the new record linkage techniques. But he senses there might be a change coming, quoting a response by CDC director Dr. Julie Louise Gerberding in a letter to Walter Weber, attorney for the American Center for Law and Justice, that maternal mortality rates and abortion mortality rates are “conceptually different and are used by the CDC for different public health purposes.” We can only hope that this will begin a new era of honest reporting on abortion by the CDC, not only of deaths but of the major medical and psychological complications following abortion.

(For more information, visit the web site of the Elliot Institute, www.afterabortion.org.)

Mary Anne Hackett