1964 Awake! - Theocratic Collector.com

out faith in God and in the operation of ranged for an abortion. An overdose of
his laws, they resolve every problem in Pentothal sodium killed the girl. The operw
harmony with expediency. Right or wrong ator in this instance, a real estate sales­
does not enter into their thinking. man.
True, some doctors maintain a high morw Only a few criminal abortionists apply
al standard, and are to be commended for the "D. and C." technique. Most employ
the excellent counsel they offer to pregw other methods. A foreign substance may
nant patients, counsel that all too often is be introduced into the womb on the theory
ignored. Others, having performed aborw that the womb will then contract and expel
tions, are deeply affected by the cxperiw the fetus. Some abortionists use chemiw
ence. One doctor said that it goes "against cals, which usually leave the patient with
the grain." "Of all the gynecological opera­ ulcerated internal burns and just as pregtions,"
said another, "that of therapeutic nant as ever. Often women have to have
abortion is the one that causes me most their reproductive organs entirely removed
discomfort." And this even though the because of the effects from such burns.
abortion may have been justified by the Police have collected a bizarre array of
law of the land!
items used by abortionists in their nefari­
While the operation is relatively simple, ous trade. Included are wire coat hangers,
it is nevertheless ranked as being specially turkey quills, nails, knitting needles, hair­
risky after the sixth week of pregnancy. pins, rattail combs, plastic bottles, pencils,
The operation, known as "D. and C.," or slippery elm, douche tubes and even elastic
dilatation and curettage, consists primari­ bandages.
ly of scraping the product of conception Formal education seems to provide little
out of the uterus. During pregnancy the defense against the racket of mercenary
walls of the uterus become delicately soft abortionists. Even women of higher-than­
and susceptible to perforation, with fatal average education fall prey to the false
results. The dangers of infection, uncon­ claims and promises of abortionists of
trolled hemorrhaging and air embolism are every kind. Police sergeant Galindo of Los
ever present, even when the operator is a Angeles said: "We see abortionists from
skilled surgeon in a well-equipped hospital. all walks of life-bartenders, janitors,
How woefully ignorant of the delicacy butchers, office workers, poultrymen, real
and balance of the human anatomy those estate slaesmen, machinists. They seem to
who entrust themselves to quacks and think that if they can work on a lathe they
charlatans in an operation of this type! can perform abortions." No wonder the
Early in December 1955, a twenty-year-old police often refer to them as "mechanics"
fashion designer learned that she was from
five to six weeks pregnant. The boyfriend
and "butchers." Some of them are just
that.
declined to marry her, but arranged for The cost in human life is compounded
an abortion to be performed in his apart­ when the mother as well as the unborn
ment by a hospital attendant. The girl child dies under the hand of the abortion­
died. To hide the evidence they dismemist. It is estimated that some 5,000 women
bered her body, wrapped the pieces in die armually in this manner in the United
gaudy Christmas paper and disposed of it States of America alone. In France some
in rubbish cans along the streets of New ,20,000 die yearly as a result of post·
York. A sixteen-year-old married girl did abortion complications. In England and
not want her first baby, so the mother ar- Wales deaths from abortion rank third
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