--- title: Abortion: Abortion Facts and Statistics About Abortion Safety description: People who get abortions are less likely to have complications than people who have their wisdom teeth removed, finds a new study published in the... canonical: https://time.com/3623572/abortion-safe-complications/ author: Mandy Oaklander article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-09T21:15:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T02:39:30.327Z article:section: Health og:title: Abortion Complication Rates Are 'Lower Than That For Wisdom Tooth Extraction', Study Says og:description: People who get abortions are less likely to have complications than people who have their wisdom teeth removed, finds a new study published in the... og:url: https://time.com/3623572/abortion-safe-complications/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Abortion Complication Rates Are 'Lower Than That For Wisdom Tooth Extraction', Study Says twitter:description: People who get abortions are less likely to have complications than people who have their wisdom teeth removed, finds a new study published in the... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Abortion Complication Rates Are 'Lower Than That For Wisdom Tooth Extraction', Study Says > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Dec 9, 2014 9:15 PM UTC  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. Dec 9, 2014 9:15 PM UTC People who get abortions are less likely to have complications than people who have their wisdom teeth removed, finds a new [study](http://journals.lww.com/greenjournal/Abstract/publishahead/Incidence%5Fof%5FEme rgency%5FDepartment%5FVisits%5Fand.99258.aspx) published in the journal _Obstetrics & Gynecology._ Researchers at University of California San Francisco wanted to understand, from a medical standpoint, the safety of abortions, so they analyzed 54,911 of them performed from 2009-2010 on women, as well as the health care services the women received in the six weeks following the abortion. Of those abortions, only 2.1% resulted in a complication—considerably lower than the 7% complication rate for wisdom tooth removal and 9% rate for tonsillectomy, the authors point out. Major complications that required hospitalization, surgery or a blood transfusion occurred in only 0.23% of the women in the study—126 cases. That’s lower than the rate of major complications for colonoscopy, says study author Ushma Upadhyay, PhD, an assistant professor in the department of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at UCSF. Fewer than 2% of abortions resulted in a minor complication. Medication abortions—a sequence often called the “[abortion pill](http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-info/abortion/the-abortion-pill)“—had the highest rate of complications at 5.2%, “the vast majority of which were minor and expected,” the study authors write. Those minor complications often mean they come back for another dose to complete the abortion. According to the study, 23 states now have regulations that an abortion clinic must meet standards for ambulatory surgical centers. 8 states have hospital transfer agreement requirements, and 13 require hospital admitting privileges. The typical explanation for these regulations has been that safety is a factor, but the researchers hope to remove that as an issue. “Across the country, there are a record number of restrictions against abortions,” Upadhyay says. “I think basically that they’re supported by the public because they seem like they are needed”—but abortion providers sometimes can’t get admitting privileges, so abortion clinics often end up being shuttered, she says. “I hope \[the data\] clarifies that abortion is a safe procedure, and that it’s not this scary procedure it can be made out to be in the media or public policy,” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3623572/abortion-safe-complications/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3623572/abortion-safe-complications/"},"headline":"Abortion Complication Rates Are 'Lower Than That For Wisdom Tooth Extraction', Study Says","datePublished":"2014-12-09T21:15:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T02:39:30.327Z","description":"People who get abortions are less likely to have complications than people who have their wisdom teeth removed, finds a new study published in the...","url":"https://time.com/3623572/abortion-safe-complications/","keywords":["Healthcare","abortion","Research"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mandy Oaklander","jobTitle":"Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/healthcare/","name":"Healthcare"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3623572/abortion-safe-complications/","name":"Abortion Complication Rates Are 'Lower Than That For Wisdom Tooth Extraction', Study Says"}}]}] ```