While I think the first post was incredibly in poor taste, this does bring up an important point. Most women in my age group have no clue of the things that women in the past used to do to their bodies to cause a miscarriage (ie, spontaneous abortion). For young .Women, the right to our own bodies and lives has always been present and when I do educational speaking about the time before .Roe, I am always amazed at the number of young .Women who simply cannot believe the methods that were used. I think, therefore, that it is useful to bring up and discuss those methods to further reinforce a very crucial point that is often overlooked in the abortion debate -
the legality of abortion has never stopped .Women from obtaining them.
When abortion is illegal (and this is evidenced by countries around the world where abortion is criminalized, .Women do not suddenly stop in their quests to end their pregnancies. Instead, they resort to whatever methods are available to them at the time, including those methods which they know may kill them. So that leads us to a discussion of which methods were used.
The metal coathanger - this method was used primarily by the very desperate and the very poor. Anyone with any money or access to money tried other methods before resorting to this crude instrument. The wire hanger was pulled to elongate it, inserted into the vagina, cervix, and finally uterus, and the .Women tried to scrape the interior of their uterus' until they detached the placenta. However, since the wire hanger had a point on it many .Women were prone to puncturing their uterus'. Upon puncturing the uters, most .Women experienced severe infections and hemorraghing (sp?) which led to their deaths.
The red catheter tube - this thick red tube was inserted into the uterus and the vagina was packed with cotton balls to hold it in place. With the cervix open and a foreign body irritating the uterus, contractions would begin a few days later. However, with the tube in place, it became a very great conduit for bacteria to enter the vagina, cervix, and uterus. This method also led primarily to death as the .Women choosing it had little money (this method was the cheapest "medical" option) and little access to health care.
Acidic douches - douches in a variety of forms and recipes were used to kill the fetus or dislodge it from the uterine wall. However, many .Women did not know the proper concentrations of acids to use, especially since the vagina is already a highly acidic area of the body. Because of this, many .Women made themselves permanately infertile as the acid would eat their reproductive organs from the inside out. This is also before vaginal reconstructive surgery was common place so after this method, many .Women lost the use of their vagina's.
Reeds, rods, and other irritants - these were used much like the red catheter tubes, inserted and left until the uterus started contracting to dispell all foreign bodies (and for those of you who don't know, the .Woman's body
.Does consider the fetus to be a foreign body and fights its presence from the beginning which is the bane of many .Women who experience frequent miscarriages). However, anything inserted that is not sterile carries with it the possibility of introducing bacteria and since it was left in place for a long period of time, it invited other bacteria to climb into the body.
A trip down the stairs, into walls, high falls, and punches - the desperation that many .Women felt (and still feel, those of you who've been there no what i'm talking about) was so great that they would engage in acts that they knew would harm them physically. Really, that was the whole point, to harm themselves so much that their body rejected the fetus and other gestational material. Many pitched themselves down stair wells, ran repeatedly into walls, fell from great heights, or begged other people to hit them about the stomach.
Dangerous drug cocktails - there are literally thousands of drugs which can cause a miscarriage
in the right dose. However, finding the right dose becomes the issue for desperate .Women who were likely to overdose just to ensure that the method worked. For those who were unsuccessful but did not die from the poisoning, the drugs often caused defects to the fetus which necessitated in its removal in the end (though to get approval, a board at the hospital had to decide your fate even if your life was currently at stake).
Abortionists - if you lived in a larger city, you were likely to be luckier than most still a tremendous hurdle loomed in your path. You had to find the right abortionist who used clean instruments and knew what they were doing so that they would not kill you. Some .Women were lucky, others were not. Some cities had organizations set up (such as jane in chicago) but rural .Women, as they are today, did not have access to these services.
Private doctors - if you were wealthy enough, a private doctor could be found and bribed at the right price to perform your abortion at their office with clean instruments. However, since the news of a safe doctor performing abortions traveled fast and meant imprisonment for the doctor if the allegations were true, many doctors refused to even refer their patients to someone they knew.
Hospitals - hospitals performed the majority of abortions because many .Women arrived at the hospital on the verge of death because they had already attempted to abort themselves. In order to restore their health, the pregnancy had to be ended, the uterus repaired, and a steady stream of anti-biotics introduced. However, to receive an abortion in a hospital, a board at the hospital had to meet and agree with your doctor on your level of need. These men usually met during the week and you could be denied an abortion and left to die in the recovery ward. It is important to note that they did not leave .Women to die out of malice but out of fear of legal reprisals.
Out of state - prior to .Roe, some states had already legalized abortion and .Women who had the money and could do so literally
messed to them for "weekend visits" or "shopping excursions." some clinics and hospitals in new york city prior to .Roe performed
.Hundreds of abortions .A .D.A.Y. Women were wheeled in one after another after another in quick succession to get through as many in one day as possible. It was also at this time that experimentation was performed on which method of abortion was the fastest so that more patients could be seen in a day. The saline method of abortion was popular at this time but quickly discontinued.
Out of country - wealthy .Women have
always been able to find and obtain reliable, safe abortions. Many traveled overseas to europe where some countries legalized abortion sooner than others. In fact, in the late 1960s, a young .Woman could travel to great britain alone for around $450 and that would include her abortion at a hospital there (this is according to advertisements).
Country clubs and resorts - as stated above, wealthy .Women have always had access to safe abortions. Many abortions were performed on the daughters, wives, and mistresses of the wealthy elite at certain country clubs or expensive resorts. The girls would be sent, "for their health" and would come back home or go back to school without any stigma attached to their "vacation." it was a so-called "open" secret among the aristocracy.
