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PPFA Abortion Conference, 1955 "The sooner the public is acquainted with the
basis facts and implications of abortion in the United States, the better.
Only through widespread knowledge of the situation can responsible public
action be taken to correct the conditions that underlie the high incidence
of illegal abortions in this country." Sweden "The most essential reason for special legislation in Sweden concerning lawful interruption of pregnancy," Geijerstam began, "was to attempt to stem the evidently increasing rate of criminal abortion." The Swedish abortion law was passed in 1938 and ammended in 1942, allowing abortion for the following indications: Danger to life and health (broadly defined to include social indications) "[T]he so-called humanitarian indication," in cases of prosecuted rape or incest. Eugenic reasons, with sterilization required of parents requesting abortion due to their own persumably inferior genes. In 1946, the law was further broadened to allow for more leeway in taking social considerations into account. With only rare exceptions, abortion was permitted only during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. A Royal Medical Board reviewed eugenic requests. In other cases, paperwork was sent to a board. "In such cases there must be three different documents sent along, the application itself, a certificate by a licensed physician, and a certificate by the husband, a relative, or another person acquainted with the woman. In this last certificate the applicant's history and environment are described, and it is commonly written by a social worker. Like the physician's certificate it must contain as a conclusion the author's opihnion of the applicant's need for interruption of her pregnancy." Committees of the Medical Board to review abortion requsts were comprised of "one physician, usually an obstetrician, and one layman, preferably a woman, both appointd by the Government. The third member of the committee [was] the chief of the Bureau for Social Psychiatry of the Medical board." After a climb and a brief peak, legal abortions leveled off at a rate of about 5% of pregnancies. Mortality rates were 160/100,000 from 1946 through 1948; 40/100,000 from 1949 through 1953. Many doctors preferred to do a vaginal hysterotomy (removing the fetus through an incision in the vagina and uterus) even in early pregnancy, which may cause Swedish mortality from legal abortion to be higher than would otherwise be expected. Geijerstam expressed some consternation over what he considered a perplexingly high abortion rate, given the social and financial supports provided to pregnant women and new mothers. Even more perplexing was the persistence of criminal abortions even after the laws were loosened. The soloutions proposed included more comprehensive sex education, free contraceptives, and better counseling for pregnant women. Background of Conference |
