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"A COMPLETE DISASTER": ABORTION AND THE POLITICS OF HOSPITAL ABORTION COMMITTEES, 1950-1970
In the late 1950s, the obstetrical staffs of twenty-six hospitals in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, responding to a questionnaire, evaluated a number of hypothetical abortion requests. Among them were these three cases:
Mrs. C. is a thirty-eighty-year-old woman who has had six children in the past ten years. At this time, she is two months pregnant and severely depressed. After an unhappy childhood and marriage, Mrs. C. sees herself as a failed mother, wife, and housekeeper.
Each of her recent pregnancies made Mrs. C. tired and depressed. During her last pregnancy one year ago, she spent most of the time in bed, vomiting a great deal, unable to eat; twice she was hospitalized for dehydration and weight loss. Following delivery, Mrs. C. was chronically depressed and listless, with multiple physical complaints. Presently, she complains of being tired, of not caring and says she wants to rest and sleep most of the time. She states that she can't eat and that she vomits when she tries. She appears emaciated and hollow-eyed. Although she seems fairly well in contact with reality, she claims to be unable to face the prospect of a seventh pregnancy.
Mrs. A. is thirty-two. She has three healthy children, ages four, six, and seven. She is now seven weeks' pregnant. There is conclusive evidence that she had an attack of rubella two weeks ago.
Miss C. is a fifteen-year-old daughter of a minister. Eight weeks ago she was raped by an escapee from a state institution for mental defectives and became pregnant. As a result, Miss C. is experiencing serious emotional distress.(1)
Naturally, both the lawyers who devised the questionnaire and the physicians who responded to it were aware of Section 274 of the California Penal Code which "proscribe[d] as a felony the performance of an abortion upon a woman `unless the same is necessary to preserve her life.'"(2) The lawyers and medical doctors were equally aware that in none of the three cases described above did the pregnancy directly endanger the life of the petitioner. A physician or a hospital agreeing to terminate any of these pregnancies would do so in violation of California law. The...