The effect of legalized abortion on morbidity resulting from criminal abortion.

In order to examine the effect of legalized abortion on the complications of criminal abortion, a surveillance system was established at a large urban hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. Between 1969 and 1973, legally induced abortions at this hospital increased logarithmically from 8 to 498 per quarter year. The number of women admitting to attempts at illegal abortion decreased significantly, but the decline began only after three years of increasing numbers of legal abortions. A slight decrease in the number of septic "spontaneous" abortions also occurred. Making legal abortion services available can result in a decrease in morbidity associated with illegal abortions, but the availability of legal abortion must be sufficiently broad to obviate having to resort to criminal means.