Abstract

PIP: Comments concerning a report on the consequences of induced abortion which cite the author's book, ''Legal Abortion: the English Experience'' focus on the author's desire to provide a dispassionate survey on an emotionally charged issue. The author favors therapeutic abortion in suitable cases but stresses its use as part of a spectrum of fertility control, beginning with education in reproductive physiology. The report on the consequences of the Abortion Act is, however, a negative and inaccurate appraisal. Much of the data of the report relies on statistics produced before the use of the Karman cannula. Dilation of the cervix is unnecessary so that cervical incompetence, prematurity, and other complications on which this report dwells will become less frequent. With regard to infection, 85% of 1111 patients followed for a month or more resulted in only 3 cases of infection.