Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ulysses.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!duke!unc!ulysses!smb
From: smb@ulysses.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: Senate vote/Choice
Message-ID: <638@ulysses.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 6-Oct-83 10:10:45 EDT
Article-I.D.: ulysses.638
Posted: Thu Oct  6 10:10:45 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 7-Oct-83 08:37:26 EDT
References: <728@cbscd5.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
Lines: 15

Before Roe vs. Wade, the availability and legality of abortion varied widely;
it was a matter of individual state laws.  As for the claim that women die
in pregnancy because they are denied abortions:  it's a statistical matter.
According to every study I've seen, women carrying a pregnancy to term are
at greater risk than women who have abortions.  (The same is true, incidentally,
of pregnancy vs. any method of contraceptions.  Figures I've seen this week
(in the N.Y. Times and Newsweek) gave a 2% risk of problems (I don't recall
how severe) from a pregnancy, vs. a .1% risk for the Pill.  The diaphragm is
essentially risk-free, but of the couples using it in their first year of
marriage, about 18% experienced an undesired pregnancy.  This implies that
their are serious usage problems, and that women should possibly give more
consideration to the Pill when they're young -- especially because the risk
of using the Pill doesn't become significant (for most women) until 35 or 40.)

		--Steve Bellovin