Reproductive mortality in the United States: Recent trends and methodologic considerations

Abstract

Between 1975 and 1982, the annual number of deaths attributable to pregnancy and childbirth, induced abortion, and contraception in the United States declined from 1.083 to 751. The mortality rates for each of these components decreased by 35, 89, and 35 per cent, respectively, and the overall reproductive mortality rate dropped by 35 per cent. The death rate due to pregnancy and childbirth is 25 times greater than that due to induced abortion and eight times more than that to contraceptive-associated mortality. In 1982 nearly 30 million women used contraceptives, while slightly fewer than four million women were pregnant to term. The decrease in contraceptive-associated mortality between 1975 and 1982 probably reflects a combination of safer contraceptives, fewer women using contraceptive methods that may not be safest for them, and an increasing number of sterilizations, which remove women from the group at highest risk of contraceptive-related mortality. Maternal mortality appears to be slowing its rate of decline, while induced abortion mortality has been very low since the legalization of abortion.