Reports on and summarizes a number of papers presented at the 1981 annual meeting of the American Public Health Association that addressed morbidity and mortality associated with hysterectomy and sterilization. 2 studies from the Centers for Disease Control indicate a high degree of morbidity associated with hysterectomy and a 90% higher rate of complications for abdominal than for vaginal procedures with an overall mortality rate of 1.15 per 1000 procedures. 4 studies on tubal sterilization indicate a good safety record (a serious complication rate of 1.7 per 100 women having interval laparoscopies and an overall mortality rate of 4 per 100 thousand) together with a low failure rate of 2.5 pregnancies per 1000 sterilized women after 1 year. Women receiving Medicaid have nearly 2 to 4 times higher rates of sterilization than the general population. Additional studies on diagnoses leading to hysterectomy on complications of hysterectomy and sterilization and on statistics related to Medicaid sterilizations are also described and summarized.