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From: turpin@cs.utexas.edu (Russell Turpin)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.med
Subject: Re: Wanted: Recipe for Low-Technology Abortions
Summary: The big problem is not the tools.
Message-ID: <4555@cs.utexas.edu>
Date: 12 Jan 89 19:39:30 GMT
References: <13433@cup.portal.com>
Organization: U. Texas CS Dept., Austin, Texas
Lines: 26

In article <13433@cup.portal.com>, mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson) writes:
> With the upcoming Supreme Court review of the abortion issue, and the
> possibility of a future return to illegality, I am wondering if there is
> a safe method to perform an abortion using easily-obtained materials and
> equipment.
> 
> For example, I can get 12-gauge, solid-core copper wire with Teflon 
> insulation ... I'll bet I could shove it all the way up a woman's 
> Fallopian tubes without danger of infection, if had some way of 
> knowing where it was going.

The larger problem here is not the tools, but the skills
required.  You are not qualified to practice medicine.  That
perfectly sterile wire of yours will nevertheless cause infection
and perhaps death if you break through the uterine wall.  You
certainly don't want to try pushing it through the Fallopian
tubes!  Do yourself and any women who would be foolish enough to
risk this a favor: forget it, don't even think about doing this. 

If abortions become illegal, they will also become more risky.
This is not solely because the necessary equipment will be less
available (though that may be part of it), but rather because
most doctors would rather practice inside the law than outside
it.  Those that are willing to practice illegally will frequently
be those who could not or did not succeed in legal practice. 

Russell