Pros And Cons: The Legalization Of Abortion

Secondly, according to Daniel R. Mishell, Jr., MD – Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Southern California –, women were employing “coat hangers or knitting needles or radiator flush to induce abortions”, before professionally-performed abortions were legalized in 1976 (Morrison, par. 7). Indeed, while 39 maternal deaths from illegal abortions were reported in the United States through 1972, abortion-related deaths declined to two by 1976. However, according to The World Health Organization, unsafe “abortions induce nearly 68,000 women deaths worldwide each year”, mainly in emergent countries, since professional services are practically inaccessible and abortions are socially not accepted due to misconceptions