A leaked US Supreme Court opinion draft suggests the nation’s highest court is on the verge of overturning Roe v Wade, the seminal 1973 ruling that protects the right to abortion in the country. The draft written by Samuel Alito, one of the court justices, was published by the news site Politico on 2 May. If – or as many now believe in the wake of this leak, when – the ruling is repealed, the consequences for women’s health will be dire.

Research shows that making abortion illegal doesn’t reduce the number of abortions performed. In fact, countries with more restrictive laws actually have higher abortion rates than countries where abortion is widely available, according to a 2009 study by researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. What laws that restrict abortion do instead is substantially increase the risk of death for the people who receive them. The same study reported that abortion-related deaths are 34 times higher in countries with restrictive abortion laws.

When performed properly, an abortion, either through medication or surgery, is one of the safest gynaecological procedures – much safer than childbirth. The most recent figures from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that in the US there are 0.41 deaths per 100,000 legal abortions compared with 23.8 deaths per 100,000 live births.

However, when abortions are performed in unsanitary conditions or by untrained providers, they can be deadly. According to the 2009 study, 68,000 women die worldwide from unsafe abortions every year, primarily from haemorrhage and infection, and another 5 million have long-term health complications from these procedures.