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Planned Parenthood has steadfastly maintained for years that if “safe and legal” abortion were abolished, women would die in unsafe, “back alley” abortions. That assertion ran into a brick wall last week erected by an unusual source: The Obama administration.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's most recent “Abortion Surveillance” contains a wealth of heartbreaking statistics about abortion in the United States, including this one buried literally at the end of the report: In the year 2010, a total of 10 women died from legal abortions. But not a single woman died of illegal abortions in 2010.

The report – which was released on Black Friday, as half the nation was clawing itself to death for the best deals and the other half was still recovering from its post-Thanksgiving nap – states:

Deaths of women associated with complications from abortions for 2011 are being investigated as part of CDC's Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System. In 2010, the most recent year for which data were available, 10 women were identified to have died as a result of complications from known legal induced abortions. No reported deaths were associated with known illegal induced abortions.

But wait a second – this is an abortion surveillance for 2011. Why are there no statistics for this year? The report later reiterates, “Possible abortion-related deaths that occurred during 2011–2014 are under investigation.”

It's not because there were no deaths caused by legal abortions during that time. Tonya Reaves, Lakisha Wilson, and Jennifer Morbelli all died during legal abortion procedures performed in Chicago, Cleveland, and Maryland, respectively.

Put simply: My conjecture is that the Obama administration is too frightened to release the numbers. They are desperately searching for a woman who died from an illegal abortion to include alongside these notorious deaths, especially Tonya Reaves' human butchering at the hands of one of Obama's staunchest political allies in his adopted hometown.

While every death is unique and tragic, these are sadly too common. Since 1973, there have been 421 deaths from legal abortion and 56 deaths from illegal abortions. (The circumstances of 13 deaths were reported as “unknown.”)

That totals 7.51 times more deaths from legal abortions than illegal abortions between 1973 and 2011, an average of 12.89 a year.

That is, 86 percent of all expectant mothers' deaths during botched abortions performed since 1973 were attributable to “safe,” legal abortion-on-demand.

The last known death from an illegal abortion was in 2004, or one death in seven years. Legal abortion killed 57 women during the same time period. Its roll call of 43 deaths over the last five years is up slightly from 41 over the previous five-year period.

This information is included in Table 25, the last chart in the lengthy study.

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(The story continues following the chart.)

This does not include three states, including the largest, California. The state has just allowed midwives to perform abortions, which pro-life advocates warn will subject women to greater complications (although it will save the abortion industry substantial money; there is no indication it intends to charge less for its services, however).

As Bob Dylan asked, “How many deaths will it take until he knows that too many people have died?”

This report has killed the “safe and legal” abortion mantra. We should give it a proper burial where it, unlike its victims, will not experience a resurrection.

Cross-posted at TheRightsWriter.com.

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Ben Johnson is U.S. Bureau Chief of LifeSiteNews.com. The author of three books, Ben was Managing Editor of FrontPage Magazine from 2003-10. He is also a regular guest on the AFR Talk network's “Nothing But Truth with Crane Durham.”