Birth Control - Abortion

ABORTION

Initially, abortions have been illegal except when essential for safety III' health. When performed illegally, they have been subject to no controls. Those who performed them, including so-called doctors, often have been fly-by-night individuals with little or no medical knowledge, working under conditions not completely sanitary, trusting to luck that nothing would go wrong that could be traced to them. 

The death toll from illegal abortions has been tragically high, and the toll in illness and injury even higher. No accurate figures are available because so few cases have been reported. Sterility may result from an abortion, unreported and performed years earlier, and the abortion may not be suspected as the cause even by the victim herself. Some drugstores have carried on a lucrative under-the-counter business in drugs "guaranteed" to produce abortion. These are useless or dangerous drugs, and it has not been easy to obtain much information about their effects. Fortunately, there has been a trend recently to liberalization of abortion laws in some states.

While some people feel that destroying embryonic human life is never justified-and we respect the religious, ethical or moral grounds on which they base their opinions-we do not agree with them, and we are sure they will respect our viewpoint as we respect theirs. Our conviction is that the life of a mother should not be sacrificed or endangered, with all that means to her present children and possibly her future children, to maintain the life of an unborn infant whose survival chances often are slim. This places great responsibility upon physicians who must decide whether or not an abortion is necessary. In some cases, the decision may not be difficult. 

In a tubal or ectopic pregnancy, for example, the embryo develops outside the uterus, in the fallopian tube which leads into it from the ovary. Fortunately, this is a rare condition. Such embryos can- not survive; they die in one way or another, sometimes bursting through the tube. At that point, the danger to the mother's life is great. Therefore tubal pregnancy is considered a clear-cut reason for terminating pregnancy by removing the embryo rather than waiting for it to die, thus endangering the mother's life. Most cases are not so clear-cut. 

The doctor's decision may be a difficult one. But in many other circumstances doctors are used to, are forced to, make difficult decisions. They must do their best to decide wisely. One important reason for a woman to have a complete medical checkup prior to pregnancy is that in most cases it will indicate whether or not she can safely have a baby, avoiding need for a difficult decision -for her and for her doctor-after she has conceived.