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Safety Record. Despite the growing popularity of the procedure, many have serious reservations about it. Dr. Robert Hall, a Manhattan gynecologist actively involved in efforts to liberalize abortion laws, warns of possible infections and other complications. Others oppose it on religious and legal grounds. Walter Trinkaus, a professor of law at Loyola University of Los Angeles, and past president of the 5,000-member Right to Life League of Southern California, says flatly that a menstrual extraction is an illegal abortion. The legality of the procedure has yet to be tested in any court.
Even doctors who endorse extraction warn against its being used repeatedly as a substitute for contraception. They also condemn the do-it-yourself approach as unsafe. But otherwise, extraction advocates, who note that there have been remarkably few complications in some 2,500 doctor-performed procedures, are enthusiastic. "It is a fine, simplified technique," says Dr. Lee Newman of Beverly Hills, Calif. "Since we have no real, definitive knowledge of pregnancy, a woman does not have to face all the conflicting emotions that go into that situation." Neither does she face the costs. The price for a vacuum-aspiration abortion in a New York clinic is $125 to $150. Menstrual extractions, which can be performed in a doctor's office in a matter of minutes, cost between $30 and $50.