From: dsh@csl36h.csl.ncsu.edu (Doug Holtsinger)
Subject: Re: Abortion and Infanticide
Reply-To: dsh@csl36h.csl.ncsu.edu (Doug Holtsinger)
Organization: North Carolina State University
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 16:17:19 GMT

In article <1992Jul28.230839.14412@cs.yale.edu> 
rescorla@rtnmr.chem.yale.edu (Eric Rescorla) writes:

>dsh@csl36h.csl.ncsu.edu (Doug Holtsinger) writes:

  [.. comparing the safety of prostaglandin abortions, which sometimes 
      results in live birth, against the safety of D&E, which always kills 
      the fetus ..]
 
> I am, however, a bit concerned about statistical significance.
> Do you have the absolute numbers?

I can do better than that, I can give you a controlled study comparing
the safety of the two procedures.

Here's an abstract from an article in the Feb. 17, 1984 issue of 
The Journal of the American Medical Association:

  "Although dilatation and evacuation (D&E) is currently the most 
   common method of midtrimester abortion [13 to 24 weeks] in the 
   United States, the intra-amniotic instillation of hyperosmolar
   urea and prostaglandin F2alpha combined (U-P) has been proposed
   as a safer technique. To evaluate the comparative safety of
   U-P and D&E, we analyzed 2,805 U-P and 9,752 D&E abortions at
   13 to 24 weeks menstrual weeks' gestation. The U-P procedure
   resulted in significantly more serious complications than D&E
   (1.03 v. 0.49 per 100 abortions). After adjusting for patient
   age, race, parity, follow-up information, and preexisting
   conditions, the relative risk of serious complications associated
   with U-P was 1.9 (95% confidence interval, 1.2 to 3.1). This
   advantage for D&E stems from its applicability to the 13- to
   16-week interval. Although D&E appears to be safer overall in
   the midtrimester, for women obtaining abortion after 16 weeks,
   the rates of serious complications were comparable, with a 
   relative risk of 1.0 (95% confidence interval, 0.4 to 2.5)."

So after 16 weeks, the D&E is about as safe as a prostaglandin
abortion (during 1984), and before 16 weeks, it's twice as safe.

Here's a portion of the article which might explain why the D&E is
the more commonly performed abortion procedure, even after 16 weeks:

  "The D&E procedure has several other advantages. It can be
   performed in less than 20 minutes, whereas the U-P requires
   a labor of uncertain length. The D&E procedure is less painful
   than U-P; local or general anesthesia is customarily used
   for D&E, whereas analgesia is given for labor pain caused by
   U-P. Also, D&E spares the woman the emotional stress of long
   labor and subsequent delivery of the fetus. In addition, D&E
   can be performed on an outpatient basis, whereas U-P usually
   requires overnight hospitalization. This fact is reflected in
   the lower cost of D&E compared with U-P. The D&E abortions
   usually cost $200 to $300 less than instillation abortion
   methods."

So a woman/physician might select the D&E procedure over a 
prostaglandin method because a) it's less painful, b) it takes
less time, c) it's cheaper, and d) the D&E always kills the 
fetus. After 16 weeks gestation, the two methods are comparable 
in safety. It seems that the D&E procedure is more popular than  
the prostaglandin method because the D&E is the more expedient 
method; the fetus is killed because it's cheaper, faster, and
less painful to the woman.


>> Then what is the justification for abortion?

> Come on, Doug. We've done this many times. Straight out right to
> bodily autonomy.

So why doesn't the fetus have the right to bodily autonomy? 

>-Ekr


Doug Holtsinger

Xref: sparky talk.abortion:29383 alt.birthright:133