Dear Editor,
In her Sept. 21 column, Linda Rabadi says, "According to the Planned Parenthood Web site, in the 20 years before Roe vs. Wade, it is estimated that nearly one million women per year sought out an illegal abortion. This left thousands of women dead and hundreds permanently injured."
What the PP Web site actually says is that in those 20 years, "Estimates range from 200,000 to 1.2 million per year." As far as deaths are concerned, it only says that "193 women died from illegal abortions in 1965," the last year that abortions were illegal in all states. Furthermore, the Web site figures are not accurate.
In his book "Aborting America," Dr. Bernard Nathanson admits that he and his cofounders of NARAL fabricated the figure that a million women were getting illegal abortions in America each year. The average, he says, was actually 98,000 per year. Research confirms that the actual number of abortion deaths in the 25 years prior to 1973 averaged 250 a year, with a high of 388 in 1948.
In 1966, 120 women died from abortion and by 1972 - the year before the Supreme Court decision - the number dropped to 39 according to the U.S. Bureau of Vital Statistics.
Discussion about abortion is not futile as long as we discuss and clarify the facts. What is important is that we listen carefully to what each side is saying, respect each other's viewpoints, and make our conclusions based on facts - not on feelings.
David E. Sumner
Professor of Journalism
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