LETTERS: ABORTION DOCTORS IGNORE THE FETUS

To the editor:

Dr. M. Krieger, a Canadian physician, in a letter to the editor wrote in December that "during abortions, the MD's duty is to the pregnant woman" and that "safe medical abortion does not refer at all to the fetus."

While many pro-choice people conveniently leave considerations about the fetus out of any discussion on abortions, it is very sad to see a member of the medical profession to do.

A perfect example of a double oxymoron is the attaching of the words "safe" and "medical" to the word "abortion."

Isn't it obvious to any physician that in order for any abortion to be safe, one would have to completely ignore the child?

Doesn't he know of the many well-documented psychological problems among women who have had abortions, many of which don't develop until years and sometimes even decades later? These frequently masquerade as a variety of psychiatric disorders which all too often are misdiagnosed as to their real etiology.

After years of legal abortions, how can he not be aware of Planned Parenthood's own report in "Making Choices" that for every 1.6 million legal abortions performed each year in the United States, there is a death rate for the women of 1 per 100,000 and a 3-per-1,000 incidence of immediate physical complications.

How can abortion be considered a medical procedure when the new Webster's Dictionary of the English Language defines "medical" as "the science and the art of preventing, curing and alleviating disease?" In other word, unless we are to view pregnancy as a disease, it should be obvious that abortion cannot in any way be regarded as a medical procedure.

CHRISTINE E. STEPHENS

Cape Girardeau