Is Abortion Safe? Is it Safer than Childbirth?

We often hear that abortion is “safe and effective” and that it is a simple surgical procedure. Some proponents of abortion even claim that it is safer than childbirth. But is this true?

As medical abortion becomes more and more common, lies surrounding the so-called “safety” of abortions circulate freely. Meanwhile, the potential serious complications of abortion are downplayed.

The National Abortion Federation (a trade union for abortion mills) alleges, “Where abortion is safe and legal, the risk of death overall is less than 1 per 100,000 abortions.” At the same time, it says that the maternal mortality ratio is 19 out of 100,000 live births. Planned Parenthood puts the ratio higher, at 26.4 deaths per 100,000 live births.

Third trimester abortion Warren Hern goes much further, claiming that childbirth-related mortality is an astounding 111 times higher than that for abortion. Hern says, “Due to the comparative mortality risks of induced abortion and term birth, abortion is the indicated treatment for pregnancy. … Pregnancy should be seen as a biocultural event in the context of other human illnesses.”1 

One of the primary justifications the Supreme Court used for legalizing abortion in its Roe v. Wade decision was the “established medical fact” that “in the first three months of pregnancy mortality in abortion is less than mortality in childbirth.” Ever since, pro-abortionists have asserted that abortion is much safer than giving birth.

The latest major effort in this direction took place in 2012, when Elizabeth Raymond and David Grimes published a study in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology. This study is often cited by pro-abortion groups as “proof” of their assertions that birth is more dangerous than abortion. This study found that one woman out of 11,000 dies in childbirth and one of 167,000 dies during an abortion. Therefore, they alleged, abortion is fourteen times safer than childbirth.

Predictably, the mainstream media published hundreds of articles trumpeting this finding and entirely ignored voices pointing out the fact that their study had more holes in it than a road sign in redneck country.

Related: The Risks of Abortion

Why Abortion Isn’t Safe

To begin with, let us consider the massive conflict of interest regarding the authors of this study. Raymond is a Senior Medical Associate for the population control group Gynuity Health Projects, which pushes the abortion pill in more than 40 countries all over the world. Grimes is, according to the New York Times, “a leading researcher and abortion provider,” and has been performing abortions since before Roe v. Wade.

Even pro-abortion scientists should be troubled by the many gross and fundamental flaws in the study methodology of Raymond and Grimes:

  • The study was based upon annual Abortion Surveillance Reports by the Centers for Disease Control. Since reporting of abortion numbers and resulting deaths is strictly voluntary, the CDC Reports only account for about two-thirds of the abortions (and resulting maternal deaths) in the country. Therefore, the numbers used in this study cannot be accurate.
  • Abortion mill personnel have a very strong motivation to cover up deaths caused by their botched abortions and have been frequently caught doing so in the past. Raymond and Grimes do not account for this factor, nor do they even mention it. Therefore, it’s likely the number of deaths from abortion are higher than officially recorded.
  • Additionally, the total number of pregnancies in the US is unknown. As the Charlotte Lozier Institute points out, early miscarriages are not recorded. This is significant, as not counting all pregnancies will make the maternal mortality rate appear higher than it is.
  • Abortion deaths are frequently reported under the complication caused by the abortion (i.e., bleeding to death or lethal infection) and not the abortion itself.
  • Many women go to emergency rooms when suffering complications due to abortion hours or days later, and if they die there, their deaths are not usually attributed to abortion.2
  • Abortion leads in many cases to physical and psychological complications that can lead to death or health problems many years after the abortion, and the authors do not account for this at all. For example, the rate of suicide due to childbirth issues is carefully documented in the medical literature, but suicide due to abortion is rarely linked back to abortion by state agencies.2
  • The study also relies on maternal mortality rates, which are inaccurate. Additionally, Raymond and Grimes fail to account for the horrible crimes committed against women precisely because abortion is legal, easy to obtain, and often paid for by taxpayer funds. Murder – not health complications – is the leading cause of death for pregnant women in the US. As a Harvard news report stated, “control over a woman’s reproductive choices often plays a role in intimate partner violence.” This alone would greatly increase the hazard of abortion quoted by Raymond and Grimes.

We must not draw conclusions from flawed studies like those performed by Raymond and Grimes. If a study simply disregards vital information and makes blatantly false assumptions, its conclusions are fundamentally worthless.

No study has ever accounted for the above deficiencies. Abortion is much more dangerous than these biased studies show, and abortion and childbirth are more equal in their degree of hazard.

Many pro-abortion sources on this matter will further claim that abortion does not cause long-term problems such as infertility, breast cancer, or mental health issues. These are blatant lies. Abortions can damage the uterus or cervix, causing future fertility issues. It can also cause pelvic inflammatory disease, which is life-threatening and can lead to future fertility issues. And studies have shown that abortion does increase a woman’s risk for breast cancer (whereas carrying a child to term and giving birth reduces breast cancer risk, as does breastfeeding). Abortion also has a risk of leaving pregnancy tissue in the uterus, which leaves the woman at risk of infection.

In the case of medication abortion, an undetected ectopic pregnancy could rupture – to say nothing of the dangerousness of receiving such pills in the mail and giving abusers and traffickers more power to force abortions.

And these are just scratching the surface of potential health issues from abortion.

Women who undergo an abortion sometimes experience Post-Abortion Stress Syndrome, which refers to experiencing PTSD-like symptoms after an abortion. Abortion also does not only affect the woman – but it also affects her relationships with her partner and her children. Surviving children may experience survivor’s guilt, insecurity, anger, or fear.

A Deceitful Distraction

A 2024 study from the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology found that the maternal mortality rate seems to be much lower than previously reported, at 10 out of 100,000 live births versus 33 out of 100,000. This evidence brings the pro-abortion assertion that childbirth is so much more dangerous than abortion into serious question.

At the end of the day, the question of which is more dangerous – abortion or childbirth – is simply one of many pro-abortion distractions meant to draw attention away from the deadly and brutal act of abortion itself.

After all, the chances of dying of either abortion or childbirth are so miniscule that no rational woman would make a decision for or against aborting based upon them.

The chances of dying of either abortion or childbirth are vanishingly small for the average healthy woman. Although we have established that maternal mortality rates are inaccurate, we must use them to illustrate an example, as no other such measurement exists. The number of maternal mortalities in the US fluctuates each year, but let’s take the higher end of mortalities in recent years. The chances of a woman dying in childbirth in the US are about 30 per 100,000 live births (if we are taking the higher numbers, and if we ignore the 2024 study cited above), or a 0.03% chance. But the chances of dying in a car accident are 1 in 93, or 1.075%.

Of course, abortion always results in the death of at least one human being – the unborn child.

What About When the Mother’s Life is Gravely Endangered?

Some will try to justify abortion by citing the rare, hard cases – such as when the mother’s life is gravely endangered should she continue the pregnancy. These instances make up a tiny percentage of abortions. Even so, women can still elect to have a C-section to save her baby’s life as well as her own. She can also receive treatment for her life-threatening condition, so long as the child is not directly killed. Should the baby die as a result of such treatment, this would not be considered a direct abortion as the intention was never to kill the child. Instead, the child’s death is a tragic result of saving the mother’s life in a difficult situation – the principle of double effect.

For ectopic pregnancies, having a salpingectomy also falls under the principle of double effect, and it is not a direct abortion.

We don’t need abortion to save women’s lives. We can uphold the worth of both mother and child in healthcare.

Related: What Percentage of Abortions Are Medically Necessary?

Conclusion

The claim that abortion is safer than childbirth not only begs the question “For whom?“, but it demands closer examination of the resumés of those making such claims, and of the objective science which does not support this allegation in the slightest.

It is deeply unfortunate that this error has crept into Supreme Court opinions and into the opinions of the general public, but we should not lose the opportunity to set the record straight whenever possible.

This article was originally published in May 2021 by Dr. Brian Clowes and was most recently updated in November 2024 by Marisa Cantu.

+ Endnotes

[1] Warren Hern. Abortion Practice (Boulder, Colorado: Alpenglo Graphics), 1990. Hern quotes a childbirth mortality rate of 11.1/100,000 on page 7 and a first‑trimester abortion mortality rate of 0.1/100,000 on page 46, resulting in a ratio of 111 to one.

[2] Priscilla K. Coleman, Ph.D.“A Serious Misrepresentation of the Relative Safety of Induced Abortion Compared to Childbirth Published in a Leading Medical Journal.”  Available at http://www.wecareexperts.org/sites/default/files/articles/Raymond% 20&%20Grimes%20(2012)_Critique.pdf, June 22, 2012.

Brian Clowes, PhD

Dr. Brian Clowes has been HLI’s director of research since 1995 and is one of the most accomplished and respected intellectuals in the international pro-life movement. Best known as author of the most exhaustive pro-life informational resource volume The Facts of Life, and for his Pro-Life Basic Training Course, Brian is the author of nine books and over 500 scholarly and popular articles, and has traveled to 70 countries on six continents as a pro-life speaker, educator and trainer.

Marisa Cantu has a master's in political science and international affairs and a bachelor's in political science. She has also studied international studies and French. She has a strong background in nonprofit work, research, writing, and policy proposal and analysis.

2 Comments

  1. Sam on May 18, 2022 at 5:37 PM

    Abortion is certainly not safer for the baby.

    • HLI Staff on May 19, 2022 at 12:02 PM

      Very good point, Sam. Nothing in this world could be less safe, actually.

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