BOGUS MEXICAN ABORTION DEATHS
In August, 1989, a radio talk-show in Washington, D.C. broadcast the preposterous claim that “140,000 Mexican women die yearly from illegal abortions.”
The talk-show host cited the medical magazine Hippocrates as the source for that figure.1 Hippocrates in turn cited former N.Y. Times reporter Alan Riding’s book, Distant Neighbors.2
But both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN report that the total number of deaths of Mexican women of reproductive age (15–44), from all causes is only some 20,000 per year.3
Hippocrates and Alfred A. Knopf, Riding’s publisher, were contacted and the WHO and UN documentation was sent to them.
A 15 month stonewalling ensued. Knopf said it had to track down Riding, who was now a news bureau chief in Rome. Months of delay followed while Riding was “unpacking his files and looking for his notes” to substantiate his claim. According to Knopf, Riding “believes that his sources … may have a surer idea of what is really going on in the area of illegal and unreported [Mexican] abortions” than the government agencies.4
Riding previously said that each year “40,000 [Mexican] women die as a result of [abortion] complications …,”5 a guesstimate which is also untrue. As for Hippocrates, it agreed to run a letter refuting the phony abortion number but then reneged twice about printing it. The last excuse was that Riding had to respond, but he never did. Hippocrates admitted “the number of abortion deaths in Mexico most likely isn’t 140,000 a year,” but wouldn’t “print a correction because we do not have a number that is more reliable.”6
Population Research Institute called their bluff, announcing a “$10,000 challenge” to the threesome to “prove their claim or correct their error.” PRI will pay Riding-Knopf-Hippocrates $10,000 if they can document and prove “140,000 abortion deaths” annually in Mexico.7 We say they can’t do it.
Two months have elapsed with nary a word from the trio. Don’t hold your breath.
BOGUS INDIAN ABORTION DEATHS
Worldwatch Institute’s “staff researcher” Jodi Jacobson has recently claimed that a study in India “… estimated that a half-million women die annually in that country alone due to complications of illegal abortion.”8 Jacobson cites “estimates on abortion deaths in India from Sudesh Bahl Dhall and Philip D. Harvey” as her source.9
But Dahll and Harvey simply say that “ … more than a half-million Indian women die from dangerous illegal abortions every year, according to one informed estimate.”10 Who made the “informed estimate”?
According to Dahll and Harvey it is the Indian Association of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Population Control “Reports.” No proper reference is given for “Reports” — no author, study, volume, page, date etc. Why not?
Well, apparently Dahll and Harvey never saw what the Indian Association supposedly reported. Their reference to these mysterious “Reports” goes on to say “cited by S.M. Dasgupta, Institute of Medical Science, Benares Hindu University, as reported in the London Guardian, February 17, 1982.”11
So Jacobson’s “study in India” is simply an article which finally cites a London newspaper story! The claim that “a half-million Indian women .… die from dangerous illegal abortions every year” rests on nothing more than a newspaper clipping.
Moreover, the clipping actually stated that “More than 660,000 women die during illegal abortions in India every year.…”12
Apparently Dahll and Harvey didn’t entirely believe their own “source,” as they arbitrarily lopped off at least 160,000 alleged abortion deaths from the story. Even the abortion and population control propagandists don’t believe it, for they claim “only” 100,000 to 200,000 maternal deaths worldwide yearly from illegal abortions.13
In fact, Jodi Jacobson herself has said that “Estimates of the annual number of deaths due to abortion complications range from 155,000 to 204,000 women worldwide.”14
This affair is all the more peculiar as Sudesh Bahl Dhall lives in New Delhi, India where she runs an abortion clinic.15 Presumably she would have easy access to the Indian Association’s “Reports” and should not have to rely upon a newspaper clipping from half way around the world to tell her what is supposedly going on in her own country.
Endnotes
1 Hippocrates, Sausalito, CA, Sept./Oct. 1989, pp. 12 and 94.
2 Alan Riding, Distant Neighbors: A Portrait of the Mexicans, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1985, p. 247, line 3.
3 a. World Health Statistics Annual, 1989, WHO, Geneva, p. 204 reports that 21, 177 Mexican women between the ages of 14–44 died in 1986, the latest year for which statistics are available from all causes. The breakdown was: ages 14–24: 6,063; 25–34: 6,783; and 35–44: 8,331.
b. The United Nations Demographic Yearbook 1988, UN, New York, p. 438–9 reports that in 1985, 22,364 Mexican women between the ages of 14–44 died from all causes. The breakdown was: ages 15–19: 2,924; 23–24: 3,582; 25–29: 3,455; 30–34: 3,625; 35–39: 4,274; and 40–44: 4,504.
4 Ashbel Green, Vice President and Senior Editor, Alfred A. Knopf Inc., letter, October 4, 1989.
5 The New York Times, December 2, 1979, p. 10.
6 John Kiefer, Assistant Editor, Hippocrates, letter, November 9, 1990.
7 Letters to Alan Riding, Knopf publishing, and Hippocrates, November 29, 1990. A nationwide press release was issued the same day
8 Jodi L. Jacobson, “The Politics of Abortion,” Worldwatch Paper 97, July 1990, p. 38, The Worldwatch Institute.
9 Ibid., endnote #83, p. 65.
10 Dhall and Harvey, “Characteristics of First Trimester Abortion Patients at an Urban Indian Clinic,’ Studies in Family Planning, Marcy/April 1984,” pp. 93–7, at 96.
11 Ibid., endnote #7, p. 97.
12 The Guardian, London, February 17, 1982.
13 The Washington Times, December 28, 1987, p. A1: “more than 100,000 women die as a result of [illegal abortions]… according to… the Population Crisis Committee.”
14 Jodi L. Jacobson, “Planning the Global Family,” Worldwatch Paper 80, December 1987, p. 21, The Worldwatch Institute.
15 “Characteristics,” op. cit., p. 93.
