From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Karman cannula is a soft, flexible cannula developed by Harvey Karman in the very early 1970's. The flexibility of the Karman cannula reduces the risk of perforating the uterus during manual vacuum aspiration abortion. Karman developed the cannula with the goal of creating an abortion method that could safely be performed by lay practitioners. Both Karman's procedure, menstrual extraction, and his cannula were embraced by activists Carol Downer and Lorraine Rothman, who modified the technique in 1971 and promoted it.[1] Though the "self help" abortion movement envisioned by Downer and Rothman never entered the mainstream in the US after Roe v. Wade passed, physician practitioners embraced the Karman cannula and it remains a staple of abortion practice in both manual vacuum aspiration and electric vacuum aspiration, and in menstrual extraction/regulation in developing countries.
