A new study revealed that given the complications associated with childbirth, pregnant women are14 times more likely to die due to complications of giving birth than those undergoing legal abortion.

The researchers, however, said that the study was not to encourage women to get abortion but to emphasize that legal abortion can be a safe procedure and for women to be correctly informed that both options are safe.

The study, a collaboration between between Gynuity Health Projects in New York and the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, collected data from government agencies on live births as well as pregnancy and abortion-related deaths which showed that one woman in 11,000 died during child birth while roughly one woman in 167,000 died from complications arising from a legal abortion.

In their study, Dr. Elizabeth Raymond and Dr. David Grimes noted that the fact that women are pregnant for a longer time means the body has more time to develop pregnancy-related complications like high blood pressure, severe urinary tract infections and mental health problems.

However, experts said abortion is not necessarily as "safe and easy" as many make it out to be. The website Ramah International lists the risks of abortion, whether surgical and chemical. These are:

• Future Ectopic Pregnancies. Studies point out that the risk of an ectopic or tubal pregnancy, or pregnancy not in the uterus but in the tubes that lead to the uterus, is 30% higher for women who have had one abortion, and up to four times higher for women with two or more abortions. A woman who has an ectopic pregnancy has a 12% risk of dying in a future pregnancy, studies show.

• Pelvic Inflammatory Disease . 5% of women suffer PID following induced or surgical abortion. PID can lead to fever and infertility and there is a 23% higher risk of infection for those who have a sexually transmitted disease.

• Breast cancer. Studies suggest that women who had an abortion face a 50% increase in breast cancer. If the woman has a family history of breast cancer and is under 18 or over 30 years of age when the abortion takes place, this rate doubles with each successive abortion.

• Abruptio Placenta. Abruptio Placenta is a condition in pregnancy where the sac holding the baby tears away from the uterine lining which can result in extreme and severe life-threatening bleeding. Women who have experienced abortion have a 600% increase in their risk for abruptio placenta in future pregnancies.

• Infertility. Infertility and sterility mean that a woman can no longer get pregnant and abortion causes sterility in 2-5% of the women who had abortion.

• Psychological/Emotional Trauma. 50% of women who have had abortions reported experiencing emotional and psychological problems lasting for months or years. These emotions include acute feeling of grief, depression, anger, fear of disclosure, preoccupation with babies or getting pregnant again, nightmares, sexual dysfunction, termination of relationships, emotional coldness, increased alcohol and drug abuse, eating disorders, anxiety, repeat abortions, or may even lead to suicide.

According to Dr. Bryna Harwood, like any medical procedure, legal abortions require the consent of the patient, and that means that women need to understand all options as well as the risks associated with them.