Back Alley Abortions

Although I've known for 50 years that the number of "back alley abortions" was a lie multiplied many times over and created by pro-abortion feminists, I didn't know the actual figures. Came across it today in a Fact Sheet on the Dobbs V. Jackson case.

"Fears about thousands of women dying from back-alley abortions should abortion laws return to the states have been proven to be unfounded, as the claims that thousands of women were dying from illegal abortions at the time of Roe were made up for political purposes. The late Dr. Bernard Nathanson, a chief advocate for legalizing abortion, said he and his fellow advocates invented the "nice, round shocking figure" of "5,000 to 10,000 deaths a year" from illegal abortions.2 While any death is a tragedy, the number of deaths from “back alley” abortions do not approach these numbers. In 1966, before the first state legalized abortion, 120 mothers died from abortion.3 In 1972, when abortion was still illegal in 80 percent of the country, the number dropped to 39 maternal deaths from abortion.4

 
https://www.usccb.org/resources/dobbs-fact-sheet.pdf (use this for checking numbered references)