To start with, I am pro-choice and don’t have a direct reason to give the other-side free help, but I do have a question from one of the earlier columns.
Over the weekend I was discussing abortion rights with a group of friends, and someone stated that ‘10,000 women died annually when abortion was illegal.’ I corrected the speaker that is mostly a myth. I went on to state that long before abortion was legalized, the number of illegal abortion deaths were less than a hundred, as most abortions were done by trained doctors since the 1920s.
Today, when I thought about having read a similar discussion here on the board about this issue several years ago, I found the original piece.
In one of the updates, Mrs. Goodman replied that the 10,000 number came from a study done by Dr. Frederick Taussig in 1936 which estimated between 8,000-10,000 deaths annually. But her description I have to question because all references online put the number he reported in 1936(Abortion: Spontaneous and Induced) at 5,000-10,000. Two years later he stated 5,000-8,000(Am. J. Obstetrics & Gynecology 33; 1937). But the real problem is that I find references to a book(The Abortion Problem, The Williams & Wilkins Co.; 1944) about a 1942 conference which quotes Dr. Taussiq stating that his original numbers were highly inflated and that he didn’t see how any number over 5,000 deaths were realistic.
I don’t have access to any of these books, but possibly Cecil, or one of the teeming millions, can find these books to verify if Dr. Taussiq did change his estimate. If Dr. Taussiq didn’t stick with 10,000, then I don’t see why Mrs. Goodman is given the liberty to quote him and that number. 
