Before 1973′s Roe v. Wade, the problems were dangerous abortions and unequal access to safe abortions. At the same time, legal hospital abortions ― therapeutic abortions performed for medical reasons by physicians with anesthesia and antibiotics ― were, in contrast, extremely safe. Yet in the 1950s and 1960s, only a handful of women could get those safe, legal therapeutic abortions; they were almost exclusively well-to-do white women with private health insurance in private hospitals. Women of color or low-income women who went to public hospitals almost never obtained medical clearance for a legal abortion. This was an obstacle course designed to restrict legal abortions.

Source: Huffington Post January 22, 2018 10:41 UTC