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Law & Ethics, In all States abortion is legal if it is necessary to save the patient's life. Because of the difficulty in proving that any specific abortion was not necessary, prosecutors find it next to impossible to secure convictions. Medical practice, more strict, requires that a doctor, before performing an abortion, obtain the agreement of one colleague that it is necessary. Pregnancy can be arrested by a number of means, all more or less uncertain, more or less hazardous. Commonest is the taking of drugs to cause contraction of the uterus, expulsion of the fetus. The danger of this method is that enough of a drug to cause an abortion is almost invariably harmful. Abortion may also be brought about by the insertion of an instrument. A danger of this is that the placenta may not be expelled, that its retention may cause septicemia and death. Legitimate abortion is brought about by curettage, a delicate operation requiring a skilled surgeon. Miscarriage may also be induced by manipulation, by heat (rays), by violent exertion.
In many U. S. cities exist "clinics"* where a woman may obtain an abortion and treatment. Fees range from $100 to $250. Part of the fee may go to the consultant who "makes it legal." Part goes to the "nursing home" where the patient stays for a period of from two days to a week. In the higher priced of these "clinics" the curettage method is used. The operator may be a skilled surgeon whose sympathy or venality overcomes his professional ethics, or he may be a bungler.
*Not to be confused with birth control (contraception) clinics, which discountenance abortion, would do away with it by substituting contraception.