In the years since Roe v. Wade was decided, thousands of American women's lives have been saved by access to legal abortion.  It is estimated that before 1973, 1.2 million U.S. women resorted to illegal abortions each year and that botched illegal abortions caused as many as 5,000 annual deaths.  Barriers to abortion endanger women’s health by forcing women to delay the procedure, compelling them to carry unwanted pregnancies to term, and leading them to seek unsafe and illegal abortions.

Nonetheless, Roe and the availability of legal abortion, as well as the progress women have achieved for reproductive freedom, are under constant attack. 

• Mandatory waiting periods, biased counseling requirements, restrictions on young women’s access, costly and unnecessary regulations, and limited public funding have made it increasingly difficult for women to obtain safe abortions. 
• Aggravating the problem, the number of abortion providers is steadily decreasing - anti-choice forces have created an atmosphere of intense intimidation and violence that deters physicians from entering the field and has caused others to stop providing abortion services.

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