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The effect of legal abortion on the rate of septic abortion at a large county hospital

1973; Elsevier BV; Volume: 115; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/0002-9378(73)90587-5

1097-6868

PAUL N. SEWARD, Charles A. Ballard, Arthur Ulene,

Ethics in medical practice

Between 1966 and 1971, the number of legal abortions performed at LAC/USC Medical Center increased from zero to over three thousand per year. During that same time, the number of admissions for treatment of septic abortion decreased from 646 to under 150 per year. There was no compensatory increase to infections in patients receiving in-hospital abortions, and there were no deaths. Possible explanations for this phenomenon include: (1) that legal abortion may be associated with less morbidity than illegal abortion, and (2) legal abortions are increasing concurrently in Los Angeles County and physicians performing legal abortions in the community are less likely to refer their patients with complications to the County facility than the illegal abortionist. In either case, the revised California abortion law has clearly been associated with both an increase in abortions performed in our facility and a decrease in admissions for complications of abortions performed elsewhere.