20 years ago in Perspectives.

In the May/June 1982 issue of Perspectives, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control reported that 17 U.S. women had died after having illegal abortions between 1975 and 1979. About half of these women had reduced their own abortion, and most of the rest had had a procedure performed by someone other than a licensed physician; the majority of the deaths--10 of the 17--had resulted from refection. Six of the women had sought an illegal abortion primarily because legal services were too costly or were not accessible; another four were motivated mainly by the desire to keep the abortion a secret. The researchers estimated that an average of 11,300 illegal abortions took place each year from 1975 to 1979--far fewer than the 130,000 estimated for 1972, before abortion became legal in the United States. They concluded that the number could undoubtedly be reduced further "if legal abortions were made financially and geographically accessible."

Source: Binkin N, Gold J and Cates W, Jr., Illegal-abortion deaths in the United States: why are they still occurring? Family Planning Perspectives, 1982, 14(3):163-167.