What do you think would happen with that Arizona law of the SC should overturn Roe
Don't know. I don't have that much of a sense of the mood in Arizona. I only know that the Star's editorial position seems to be pro-choice.
Here's their news entry for today. It's pretty informative.
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30 Years of Conflict over Abortion
By Olivia Clarke
As a young doctor in the late '60s and early '70s, Thomas F. Purdon treated women who were near death.
The cause: unsafe, illegal abortions.
"It's disturbing. It's frustrating," said Purdon, who's been a doctor of obstetrics and gynecology for 36 years. "You feel badly for them and want to take care of them, but you know they've had something done to them that's going to have serious consequences."
Thirty years later, this scenario rarely repeats itself.
With the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Jan. 22, 1973, to legalize abortion, Purdon said, "I think a lot of people in the health-care profession heaved a sigh of relief. We were concerned by the illegal procedures being done."
That doesn't mean that dealing with unplanned pregnancies has become less emotional. The medical community faces the choice of offering the procedures and enduring the backlash or not doing them and possibly restricting access to abortions.
The availability of abortion is limited by the number of doctors willing to perform the procedure and the number trained to do it. Some medical schools, including the University of Arizona, do not officially teach their students how to perform abortions.
One year after abortions were legalized, a bill was signed into law authorizing $5.5 million to finance the expansion of the UA football stadium.
Attached to this law was the "anti-abortion rider" that "keeps doctors from performing abortions at the UA medical center," according to a May 1974 Star story.
Elective abortions are still not performed today at the University Medical Center.
Medical students receive information about the procedure but are directed to places outside the school to learn how to perform it, said Purdon, a UA professor of clinical ob-gyn and immediate past president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. About half of the residents usually take advantage of this option, he said.
A similar situation is found in other medical-school programs across the country. Of the 179 medical programs that responded to a survey in 1998 by the National Abortion Federation, 40 percent said that fewer than half their students are trained to perform abortions. And 59 percent of the programs reported that abortion training took place only in the operating room.
Dr. J. Manuel Arreguin, an ob-gyn and a member of the UA clinical faculty, doesn't believe in abortion.
During residency training, he said, people are sometimes led to believe that they must do abortions. They fear that if they don't do it, they will be considered less of a doctor.
While Tucson may have a sufficient number of abortion providers, the same is not true throughout Arizona, said Jonathan Pinkney-Baird, vice president of external affairs for Planned Parenthood of Southern Arizona. Twelve of Arizona's 15 counties do not have abortion providers, he said.
Some doctors believe it isn't safe to provide the service, said Patti Caldwell, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southern Arizona. Anti-abortion groups regularly protest outside clinics and sometimes harass or act violently toward those doctors, Caldwell said.
When Dr. William Meyer performed abortions for 10 years in Delaware during the 1970s and 1980s, protest signs were not waiting for him each morning, and he was not fearful of retribution for his professional choices.
"It took a while for the anti-abortion crusade to build," said Meyer, a UA assistant clinical professor who also practices at Kino Community Hospital. "I was practicing out in the boondocks. It wasn't like I was near a population center. They certainly weren't killing abortion providers back in the '70s and '80s."
Times have changed. Most local doctors who perform abortions were contacted by the Star, but they either didn't return the call or declined to comment.
Though abortions are legal, these doctors or their nursing supervisors said that they can't speak freely about their practices. A local female ob-gyn who has been practicing since 1986 and performs abortions under certain medical circumstances did not want her name in the story.
"There is not freedom of speech in this country," she said. "(Doctors) do not want to become targets. Their children will be harassed. Their house picketed. It's very real."
Arreguin said some doctors decide not to offer the procedure because they are against it. But these doctors are sometimes fearful of their choice.
"I don't do them, and I have certain beliefs," he said. "I'm always just impressed with how many physicians come up to me and say that they always felt that way but never said that because of fear and repercussion."
If abortion services are not widespread, some doctors fear that poor women - who can't afford to travel to the nearest clinic - won't have a way to obtain the procedures, Meyer said.
Depending on the type of abortion, it can be done as soon you discover you are pregnant and up to 24 weeks into the pregnancy, according to Planned Parenthood. But at Planned Parenthood of Southern Arizona, abortions are typically done only up to about 17 weeks, Pinkney-Baird said.
In Arizona, Phoenix is the closest place a woman can receive an abortion after about 17 weeks, Meyer said.
The longer a woman waits to get an abortion, the fewer doctors there are to perform the procedure and the more expensive it becomes for the patient, he said. Surgical abortions at Planned Parenthood of Southern Arizona cost between $335 and $550.
"If you are a rich enough woman, you can just hop on a plane," Meyer said. "Some poor women don't have access to a car. … People who want to make abortions not available are basically talking about making it more difficult for women of low economic backgrounds to get an abortion."
The number of abortions has decreased - down to 1.31 million in 2000 from 1.36 million in 1996. Several doctors say this decrease is due to medical advancements and safer-sex practices.
People are getting more education on birth control, abstinence and emergency contraception, Purdon said.
Emergency contraception - medication or an intrauterine device that can prevent pregnancy after unprotected intercourse - prevented 51,000 abortions in 2000, according to a December 2002 study released by the Alan Guttmacher Institute.
"I'm pleased to say that patients in general are trying to behave more responsibly," Purdon said. "I don't sense that patients are using (abortion) as a means of episodic contraception."
Medical advancements, like the use of ultrasound, have influenced women's and doctors' opinions on whether abortion is terminating a life, Meyer said.
Ultrasound - a scan that builds a picture of the fetus on a screen by bouncing sound waves into the uterus - became common in the '80s. Because doctors and women could see a picture of the fetus, many decided against abortion, he said.
Fewer people are getting abortions because more can be done medically for spina bifida and cardiac problems, Arreguin said.
Furthermore, social services and adoption opportunities are available for young women who are pregnant, he said.
For women opting to have abortions, the procedure can be done a lot sooner.
About 88 percent of all legal abortions are performed within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, and 55 percent of those take place within the first eight weeks of pregnancy; about 1.4 percent take place after 20 weeks, according to 2000 statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
Women can now choose whether to have a surgical or a medical abortion, doctors said. Approved in 2000, Mifepristone, formerly known as RU-486, provides women with a non-surgical alternative to aspiration abortion.
The debate over whether abortion should be legal impacts the rules that doctors follow daily.
Forty-three states have laws requiring parental consent or notification prior to a minor's abortion. Thirty-two states are using this law right now, while the rest haven't put it into action yet. Seven states and the District of Columbia do not have this law. In Arizona, the law requires consent of or notice to one parent, but state courts have prohibited the law from being carried out.
Bills have been proposed statewide and nationally that require, among other things, a 24-hour mandatory wait between getting information and obtaining an abortion, according to Planned Parenthood of Southern Arizona.
"I think it gives a woman time to reflect and think about it and talk about it with her significant support group," Purdon said. "And she can make sure she doesn't walk into something hurriedly."
Though doctors may disagree on this issue, they are taught to not let it interfere with their medical work, Arreguin said.
"As physicians, we're ultimately bound with this notion to not only respect life, but also each other," Arreguin said. "Our friendship is what allows us to have genuine disagreements but, at the same time, respectful acceptance."
Despite this understanding, there are drastically different opinions on the procedure.
"It is a scientific fact that life of a new human being begins at fertilization," said Ward Kischer, president of the Tucson Chapter of Arizona Right to Life and UA professor emeritus of anatomy specializing in human embryology. "It's in every textbook. Some prefer to ignore it, and that's their position."
Meyer said he has a responsibility to provide his patients with all the information they need to make an educated decision.
"I think a lot of us feel, thank God, that there are practitioners out there who perform abortions," Meyer said. "I look at the life sitting across from me. Abortion is an unpleasant business, but I think it's a necessary business."
* Contact reporter Olivia Clarke at 573-4357 or at oclarke@azstarnet.com. |
