Legal abortion: the public health record.

The increasing availability and utilization of legal abortion in the United States has several important effects on public health in the 1970's. It reduced deaths and surgical complications among women of childbearing age; it made possible the development of safer surgical procedures for pregnancy termination; and it increased the provision of low-cost outpatient gynecologic services. There is some concern about potential adverse outcomes in future desired pregnancies and possibly higher risks of breast cancer in certain women.