Safe-n-Legal or Back Alley Butchery?

Safe-n-Legal or Back Alley Butchery?

I'll describe several situations to you, and you decide if we're dealing with a "safe and legal" abortion provider or a criminal abortionist. And you can cheat, since I provide links. But I challenge you to just try to answer the question first, then click on the link to get more information.

Doctor A had a license and a clinic. Many doctors in the area referred patients to him for abortions. He did counseling with the abortion patients, taking a medical history. He did a physical examination, verified the pregnancy and the duration of the pregnancy. He performed the abortion using the most up to date equipment and techniques. He monitored the patient in recovery, gave her aftercare instructions, and set her up for a follow up appointment. He kept statistics on the number of abortions he did, and the complication rates, which he reported to an international conference sponsored by Planned Parenthood.
Safe, legal provider
Criminal abortionist
Started as a criminal abortionist, became a safe, legal provider
Started as a safe, legal provider, became a criminal abortionist
Doctor B did abortions in the basement of a used car dealership. He didn't have equipment for general anesthesia, and he'd discovered that if he just used local anesthesia, the patients tended to rooch around a lot on the table, so he developed a technique of injecting an overdose of local anesthesia, which renders the patient unconscious. Sometimes they stopped breathing, but he and his nurse just did some artifical respiration and got them going again. His records were sketchy and were demonstrated to be inaccurate after a patient died.
Safe, legal provider
Criminal abortionist
Started out as a criminal abortionist, became a safe, legal provider
Started out as a safe, legal provider, became a criminal abortionist
Doctor C started out as an obstetrician, but he lost his license after he and his partner botched a delivery and let a patient die. He also got into a lot of trouble after he got caught having sex with his 14-year-old goddaughter. He left the state and moved to a large city in a neighboring state, a city with a large population of immigrant women with a poor grasp of English. He started out working for somebody else, but after a patient died there he set up his own abortion practice in a filthy building with no hot water. He used expired medications and dirty, moldy equipment. When authorities in that state closed him down, he fled to another state, where he was caught raping abortion patients.
Safe, legal provider
Criminal abortionist
Started out as a criminal abortionist, became a safe, legal provider
Started out as a safe, legal provider, became a criminal abortionist
Doctor D ran a small private hospital. He had a thriving abortion practice, but faced numerous malpractice suits and was caught doing abortions with dirty instruments. He moved to another state and started doing abortions in a hotel suite. Eventually he botched an abortion in which he allowed an unattended patient to bleed to death in recovery. He was arrested, and while out on bail awaiting trial, he sent another abortion patient to a motel room after her abortion, where she bled to death.
Safe, legal provider
Criminal abortionist
Started out as a criminal abortionist, became a safe, legal provider
Started as a safe, legal provider, became a criminal abortionist.

Another Quiz by QuizMaker

Abortion Deaths
• Anesthesia Deaths
• California Saline Deaths 1970-72
• Embolism Deaths
• Fatal Instillation Abortions
• Hemorrhage Deaths
• Illegal Abortions by Amateurs
• Illegal Abortions by Paramedical People
• Illegal Abortions by Physicians
• Instillation Deaths
• LDI Tombstone Project Deaths
• National Abortion Federation Deaths
• New York Saline Deaths 1970-72
• Pre-Roe Abortion Deaths
• Post-Roe Illegal Abortions
• Pre-Roe Legal Abortions
• Self-Induced Abortion Deaths
• Teens Killed by Abortion
• Undiagnosed Ectopic Deaths

Explore This Site

Abortion Practice Before Roe
• Abortion: 20th Century Review
• Abortion Practice Before Legalization
• Abortion History
• Abortion Mortality: What California Found
• Abortion Mortality: What Minnesota Found
• Abortionists of the 20th Century
• AMA Report on Criminal Abortion, 1859
• Criminal Abortion Deaths Uncovered
• Doctors and the Back Alley Abortion
• Glimpse Into Abortion's Past
• Pro-Life Physician Horatio Robinson Storer
• The Bad Old Days of Abortion
• The Truth of Pre-Roe Abortion Mortality
• Who to Thank for Public Health Miracles

"But They'll Have Abortions Anyway!" Right?
• Glimpse Into Abortion's Pase
• Coathanger Abortion: Powerful Image, but How True to Life?
• What's the Need for Abortion?
• Psychosocial Adaptation in Pregnancy
• Unequal Burden on the Poor?
• Women Who Change Their Minds