Editing Abortion (section)

=== Safety in the abortion debate ===
Some purported risks of abortion are promoted primarily by anti-abortion groups,<ref name="JASEN"/><ref name=Cancer_Linacre>{{cite journal | vauthors = Schneider AP, Zainer CM, Kubat CK, Mullen NK, Windisch AK | title = The breast cancer epidemic: 10 facts | journal = The Linacre Quarterly | volume = 81 | issue = 3 | pages = 244–277 | date = August 2014 | pmid = 25249706 | pmc = 4135458 | doi = 10.1179/2050854914Y.0000000027 | publisher = Catholic Medical Association | quote = an association between [induced abortion] and breast cancer has been found by numerous Western and non-Western researchers from around the world. This is especially true in more recent reports that allow for a sufficient breast cancer latency period since an adoption of a Western life style in sexual and reproductive behavior. | doi-access = free }}</ref>
but lack scientific support.<ref name="JASEN">{{cite journal | vauthors = Jasen P | title = Breast cancer and the politics of abortion in the United States | journal = Medical History | volume = 49 | issue = 4 | pages = 423–444 | date = October 2005 | pmid = 16562329 | pmc = 1251638 | doi = 10.1017/S0025727300009145 }}</ref> For example, the question of a link between [[abortion-breast cancer hypothesis|induced abortion and breast cancer]] has been investigated extensively. Major medical and scientific bodies (including the WHO, [[National Cancer Institute]], [[American Cancer Society]], [[Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists|Royal College of OBGYN]] and [[American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists|American Congress of OBGYN]]) have concluded that abortion does not cause breast cancer.<ref>Position statements of major medical bodies on abortion and breast cancer include:
* World Health Organization: {{cite web|url=https://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs240/en/ |title=Induced abortion does not increase breast cancer risk (Fact sheet N°240) |publisher=World Health Organization |access-date=6 January 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110213141046/http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs240/en/ |archive-date=13 February 2011 }}
* National Cancer Institute: {{cite web|url=http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/risk/abortion-miscarriage |title=Abortion, Miscarriage, and Breast Cancer Risk |publisher=National Cancer Institute |access-date=11 January 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101221084337/http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/abortion-miscarriage |archive-date=21 December 2010 |url-status=live |date=20 February 2003 }}
* American Cancer Society: {{cite web|url=http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/BreastCancer/MoreInformation/is-abortion-linked-to-breast-cancer |publisher=American Cancer Society|date=23 September 2010 |access-date=20 June 2011 |title=Is Abortion Linked to Breast Cancer? |quote=At this time, the scientific evidence does not support the notion that abortion of any kind raises the risk of breast cancer. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605204701/http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/BreastCancer/MoreInformation/is-abortion-linked-to-breast-cancer |archive-date=5 June 2011 |url-status=live }}
* Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists: {{cite web|url=http://www.rcog.org.uk/files/rcog-corp/uploaded-files/NEBAbortionSummary.pdf |title=The Care of Women Requesting Induced Abortion |page=9 |publisher=Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists |access-date=29 June 2008 |quote=Induced abortion is not associated with an increase in breast cancer risk. |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130727105037/http://www.rcog.org.uk/files/rcog-corp/uploaded-files/NEBAbortionSummary.pdf |archive-date=27 July 2013 }}
* American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists: {{cite web|url=http://www.acog.org/from_home/publications/press_releases/nr07-31-03-2.cfm |title=ACOG Finds No Link Between Abortion and Breast Cancer Risk |date=31 July 2003 |publisher=American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists |access-date=11 January 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110102030744/http://www.acog.org/from_home/publications/press_releases/nr07-31-03-2.cfm |archive-date=2 January 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In the past even illegality has not automatically meant that the abortions were unsafe. Referring to the U.S., historian [[Linda Gordon]] states: "In fact, illegal abortions in this country have an impressive safety record."<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Gordon L | title = The Moral Property of Women | publisher = University of Illinois Press | year = 2002 | isbn = 0-252-02764-7 }}</ref>{{rp|25|}}

According to [[Rickie Solinger]],
{{Blockquote|
A related myth, promulgated by a broad spectrum of people concerned about abortion and public policy, is that before legalization abortionists were dirty and dangerous back-alley butchers.... [T]he historical evidence does not support such claims.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Solinger R | chapter = Introduction | veditors = Solinger R | title = Abortion Wars: A Half Century of Struggle, 1950–2000 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/abortionwarshalf0000soli/page/1 1–9] | publisher = University of California Press | year = 1998 | isbn = 978-0-520-20952-7 | url = https://archive.org/details/abortionwarshalf0000soli/page/1 }}</ref>{{rp|4}}
}}
A 1940s American physician spoke of his pride in having performed 13,844 illegal abortions without any fatalities.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Bates | first1 = Jerome E | last2 = Zawadzki | first2 = Edward S | title = Criminal Abortion: A Study in Medical Sociology | publisher = Charles C. Thomas | year = 1964 | isbn = 978-0-398-00109-4 |oclc =299149| page = 59| quote = In my practice I average three operations a day. By working a six day week, I complete approximately eighteen operations in this time. This amounts to seventy-two operations a month. In my sixteen years of specializing, I have successfully performed about 13,844 abortions.<br/> This was without the loss of the life of a single one of my patients. I feel those figures are something of which to be proud. I feel—I’m sure—that the work I have been engaged in these past years has been a contribution to Society and has helped to straighten out the messed up lives of many people.}}</ref>
In 1870s New York City, the abortionist/midwife [[Madame Restell]] (Anna Trow Lohman) is said to have lost very few women among her more than 100,000 patients<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Keller A | title = Scandalous Lady: The Life and Times of Madame Restell | publisher = Atheneum | year = 1981 | isbn = 978-0-689-11213-3 }}</ref>—a lower mortality rate than the childbirth mortality rate at the time. In 1936, obstetrics and gynecology professor  [[Frederick J. Taussig]] wrote that a cause of increasing mortality during the years of illegality in the U.S. was that
{{Blockquote|With each decade of the past fifty years the actual and proportionate frequency of this accident [perforation of the uterus] has increased, due, first, to the increase in the number of instrumentally induced abortions; second, to the proportionate increase in abortions handled by doctors as against those handled by midwives; and, third, to the prevailing tendency to use instruments instead of the finger in emptying the uterus.<ref>{{cite book | last = Taussig | first= Frederick J. | author-link = Frederick J. Taussig | title = Abortion Spontaneous and Induced: Medical and Social Aspects | publisher = C.V. Mosby | year = 1936 |location = St. Louis | page = 223 |url = https://archive.org/details/b29818394/page/223/mode/1up | oclc = 1041029321 }}</ref>
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