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Two New York women demonstrate the changing—but not completely changed—attitudes. Sarah, the 47-year-old wife of a policeman and mother of four, underwent four illegal abortions years ago in order to space out the arrival of her children. She remembers the operations as sordid and painful, still has difficulty discussing them and regrets that she had to "play God with my children." Her eldest daughter, Jane, 25, an attractive college graduate married to a systems engineer, has had two abortions. Jane had an illegal out-of-state operation 16 months ago because she wanted to finish her studies, and had a legal abortion at a New York clinic last spring because she wanted to continue working. Her outlook toward abortion is more positive than her mother's ("There was no question in my mind how important it is to plan children"), but even her attitude is not unclouded. After her second abortion, Jane felt weakened and developed a fever; she began to fear that some complication might render her sterile. "I suddenly realized that I did want children," she said. "Then I began to value the ability to conceive."
Doctors themselves often exhibit conflicting attitudes. Practicing Roman Catholics generally refuse to perform the procedure. Official church teaching holds unequivocally that abortion is taking human life and thus a crime against both God and man. The church threatens with excommunication anyone who obtains or performs the operation. Fundamentalist Protestants and some Orthodox Jews also oppose abortion. Though some rabbis and Protestant ministers have been leaders in the abortion reform movement, other liberal clergymen believe that abortion is justified only in those rare instances when it is necessary to save the mother's life.
Many doctors have nonreligious reasons for their reluctance to perform abortions. Dr. Robert Hall, associate professor of gynecology and obstetrics at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons, believes that some doctors resent laws allowing the woman to decide on abortion because they limit the physician's "godlike role." Many doctors also find the procedure alien to their experience. Hall estimates that before the New York law took effect, the typical specialist performed only one or two therapeutic abortions a year; much of his practice was devoted to assisting a normal delivery.
Still, a slowly growing number of doctors approve of abortion, especially the younger ones, some of whom euphemistically describe themselves as "specialists in delayed menstruation." A poll of 1,146 New York State obstetrician-gynecologists taken a year ago showed that only 59% favored the liberalized law. A follow-up survey last January showed 69% in favor.
Some nurses who work closely with abortion patients have difficulty adjusting to their assignment. Even those who volunteer for the duty have mixed feelings about it. They are sympathetic and try to help their patients through the abortion, but many find their work upsetting. Those with maternity-ward training have been drilled to do everything possible for the survival of infants. They look down on colleagues who work in the therapeutic-abortion ward.