Back-alley abortion
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A back-alley abortion is the common slang term for an illegal abortion in the United States.
Using wire coat hangers was a popularly known method of back alley abortions, although they were not the norm. In fact, Mary Calderone, former medical director of Planned Parenthood, said, in a 1960 printing of the American Journal of Public Health:
- "Abortion is no longer a dangerous procedure. This applies not just to therapeutic abortions as performed in hospitals but also to so-called illegal abortions as done by physician. In 1957 there were only 260 deaths in the whole country attributed to abortions of any kind…Second, and even more important, the conference [on abortion sponsored by Planned Parenthood] estimated that 90 percent of all illegal abortions are presently being done by physicians…Whatever trouble arises usually arises from self-induced abortions, which comprise approximately 8 percent, or with the very small percentage that go to some kind of non-medical abortionist…So remember…abortion, whether therapeutic or illegal, is in the main no longer dangerous, because it is being done well by physicians."
Herbal abortions (when done illegally) can also be described as back-alley abortions, because they are not induced in a medical facility.[citation needed]
[edit] Controversy
The back-alley abortion phenomenon received public attention leading up to the legal proceedings of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 United States Supreme Court decision which legalized abortion in America. Since then, it has become a central argument on the part of some prominent legal abortion advocates.
Bernard Nathanson, a pro-life doctor who, by his account, formerly performed thousands of abortions, has renounced statistics of women who allegedly died from back-alley abortions in the United States. He has asserted on numerous occasions that he and several other colleagues, who later became instrumental in abortion's legalization, had fabricated and disseminated many statistics about back-alley abortions for the purpose of leading the public to adhere to their justification for abortion.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.aboutabortions.com "Confession of an Ex-Abortionist by Dr. Bernard Nathanson" [1]
