Some 5,500 women go to the emergency room each year in the U.S. because of complications following abortion procedures.
According to a study from Ushma D. Upadhyay, a professor at the University of California, at least 27,941 women went to an emergency room after abortions from 2009 to 2013.
The study, however, said “perceptions that abortion is unsafe are not based on evidence.”
"Abortion-related [emergency department] visits comprise a small proportion of women's ED visits," the study concludes. "Many abortion-related visits may not be indicated or could have been managed at a less costly level of care. Given the low rate of major incidents, perceptions that abortion is unsafe are not based on evidence," the study claims.
Researchers used data from a sample of 947 to 964 hospitals with a focus on women and girls from 15-49.
Of the emergency room cases between 2009-2013, 51 percent received observational care only. About 20 percent of emergency room visits by women who had suffered complications from an abortion were cases that required a transfusion, surgery or inpatient stint. About 22 percent of all cases in those years resulted in hospital admission.
According to the study, just .11 percent of all abortions in the U.S. result in major incidents.
Women who go to abortion facilities should be told of the risks, Students for Life of America spokesperson Matt Lamb told Campus Reform.
"Any place that commits abortion should absolutely have to inform people of the risks," Lamb said. "Colleges should not be committing abortions nor referring students for abortions, but if they are going to do so, they should have to inform students of the risk, because it is incredibly unlikely that Planned Parenthood or another abortion facility will do so."
Although abortion supporters say abortion is much safer today, fatalities still occur. Earlier this year, a coroner in London accused an abortion clinic of "repeated failures of recording of observations" including a case of a woman who died in 2012 due to complications from an abortion procedure.
The average cost of the emergency department visits noted in the study was $4,719 and 8.6 percent of emergency department visits cost $10,000 or more.
Photo courtesy: ©Thinkstock/Stas_Uvarov
Publication date: July 2, 2018
