The landmark Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade was supposed to settle the question of abortion’s legality once and for all, but the Court’s ruling has instead become a fulcrum of debate. Placed squarely at the intersection of civil rights, health, religion and law, abortion is one of America’s most heated controversies.
Outlawing abortion does not necessarily reduce the number of abortions, but rather forces women to jeopardize their lives and health in order to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. In fact, in many countries where abortion is illegal but unintended pregnancy is widespread—such as Chile, Peru, Nigeria, and the Philippines—the abortion rate is higher than in the United States, according to the Guttmacher Institute. The World Health Organization estimates that 68,000 women worldwide die from unsafe abortions annually and millions more are injured, many permanently. When abortion was illegal in the United States (from the late 1800s until 1973), more pregnant women died from complications from self-induced abortions or abortions performed by untrained practitioners than from any other cause. By keeping abortion legal, we help protect the lives and health of women facing unplanned pregnancies.
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