Some facts about maternal Mortality

The "Official" Figures Are Confirmed By European Experience. According to the United States Bureau of Vital Statistics and the Centers for Disease Control, the last time 1,000 women died of illegal abortions in the United States was in the year before penicillin became widely available to the public — in 1942. From this date, the number of maternal deaths due to illegal abortions declined steeply until it stabilized at about 90 to 150 per year during the decade preceding Roe v. Wade.
It is important to note that the most impressive drop in abortion mortality was prior to legalization in 1973. The United States maternal mortality rate (which accounts for all deaths due to abortion, childbirth, and ectopic pregnancies) per 100,000 live births declined almost linearly from 37.1/100,000 in 1960 to 9.9/100,000 in 1978, for an average annual decline of 1.5/100,000. The rate was 29.1 per 100,000 in 1966, the year before the first state legalized abortion and 14.6/100,000 in 1974, the year after Roe v. Wade, representing an average annual decline of 1.8/100,000. In 1987, the rate was beginning to flatten out at 6.6/100,000 as the lowest practicable level was being approached.