Abortion, legal since 1973, still shapes, divides doctors

On the 30th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that legalized it, physicians recount what role abortion has played in their medical practices.

By Tanya Albert, AMNews staff. Jan. 27, 2003.

There are few, if any, medical procedures that generate as much controversy as abortion.

Physicians who agree to perform them can find themselves the target of protestors' words and sometimes violent actions.

As America enters the fourth decade of legalized abortion, picketing at clinics continues, but some more violent acts declined, according to a new study from the Alan Guttmacher Institute, "Trends in Abortion in the United States, 1973-2003."

In 1985 and 2000, 80% of nonhospital facilities that provide abortions reported picketing, but the percentage of facilities that received bomb threats dropped in the 15-year span, the study shows. For example, 15% of facilities received bomb threats in 2000; 48% did in 1985.

But 30 years after the Roe v. Wade decision, issued Jan 18, 1973, the number of physician offices, clinics and hospitals where abortions are performed is declining. Between 1996 and 2000, the number dropped 11%, with 1,819 abortion providers in 2000, according to the study.

Here are the stories of four physicians whose professional lives have, to varying degrees, been shaped by the legalization of abortion.

When North Carolina obstetrician-gynecologist Takey Crist, MD, was an intern and resident in the second half of the 1960s, he saw firsthand the desperate measures women were taking to terminate their pregnancies.

One young woman arrived at the hospital after fraying a lamp cord and holding the live wire to her belly. Another woman was treated after her uterus became severely infected from an unsterile "back-alley" abortion. She underwent a hysterectomy, and the infection temporarily shut down her kidneys before she recovered.