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From: mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.med
Subject: Re: Wanted: Recipe for Low-Technology Abortions
Message-ID: <13734@cup.portal.com>
Date: 20 Jan 89 02:21:52 GMT
References: <13433@cup.portal.com> <4555@cs.utexas.edu> <5357@pdn.UUCP>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
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On the CBS Morning show (1/19), surgeon-general C. Everett Koop was asked
about the consequences of overturning Roe vs. Wade, the judicial decision
which is the basis of legal abortion in the United States.

Koop said that before abortion was considered legal, the most number of
women to die of "back-alley" abortions during one year was 373.  He said
the campaign in favor of abortion have quoted numbers up to a hundredfold
greater.  He said he expects that if Roe vs. Wade were overturned, which
would let the states create their own abortion laws, the annual mortality
due to "back-alley" abortions would be about 50.  He said "improved
techniques" would result in the lower number.

I wonder what he meant by "improved techniques"?  He might mean that there is
now a large body of medical professionals experienced in abortion procedures,
which did not exist before Roe vs. Wade.  He might mean new technological
breakthroughs, such as the RU486 abortion pill might be used to perform
some illegal abortions.  He might mean that improvements can be expected
in the amateur procedures used prior to Roe vs. Wade.

A related question:  are there any traditional, native cultures who practice
any form of abortion?

By the way, Koop's term of office runs for another ten months.