1. Most hospitals failed to provide abortions: Catholic hospitals did not allow abortions; less than 30 percent of other voluntary hospitals and only 15 percent of municipal hospitals provided abortions by 1974. Harold Speert, Obstetrics and Gynecology in America: A History (Chicago: American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists), 170; Robert E. Hall, "Abortion: Physician and Hospital Attitudes," AJPH 61 (March 1971): 517-519. [BACK]

2. Chicago Reader , April 6, 1973, p. 1. However, the problem of limited availability of abortion was foreshadowed by the Chicago Women's Liberation Union's observation that the number of abortion providers was small.

3. Institute of Medicine, Legalized Abortion and the Public Health (Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences, May 1975), 79-80. [BACK]

3. Institute of Medicine, Legalized Abortion and the Public Health (Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences, May 1975), 79-80. [BACK]

4. In 1971, the maternal mortality rate (pregnancy associated deaths per l0,000 live births) was 2.9 compared to 5.3 in 1969, the last year abortion was illegal in New York. (During 1970, abortion was illegal part of the year and the new system of legal abortion was being worked out.) I have calculated the decline from figures provided in table 17 in David Harris et al., "Legal Abortion 1970-1971—The New York City Experience," AJPH 63 (May 1973): 417; Speert, Obstetrics and Gynecology in America , 170; Robert E. Meyer and Paul A. Buescher, "Maternal Mortality Related to Induced Abortion in North Carolina: A Historical Study," Family Planning Perspectives 26 (July/August 1994): 179-180; Institute of Medicine, Legalized Abortion and the Public Health , 65 -68. [BACK]

5. Irvine Loudon identifies two previous major advances in controlling maternal mortality: the first decline in maternal mortality resulted from the introduction of antiseptic and aseptic procedures in the 1880-1900/1910 period; the "profound fall" in maternal mortality followed the introduction of sulfonamides, and then blood transfusions and penicillin, in the late 1930s and 1940s. Loudon finds that soon after the development of sulfa drugs in 1935-1936, the drugs were quickly manufactured and widely available in England, and maternal mortality soon fell. "Early trials of the sulphonamides showed that they reduced the death rate from puerperal fever by 50 to 60 per cent. . .. The reduction in mortality from puerperal fever in England and Wales from 1936 to 1937 was 35 per cent for total sepsis." However, for a variety of social reasons, the sulfa drugs did not produce as rapid a decline in maternal mortality in the United States as in England. Irvine Loudon, "Maternal Mortality: 1880-1950. Some Regional and International Comparisons," Social History of Medicine 1 (August 1988): 183-228, figure A on 186, quotations on 189, 199. [BACK]

6. Irene Figa-Talamanca et al., "Illegal Abortion: An Attempt to Assess Its Cost to the Health Services and Its Incidence in the Community," International Journal of Health Services 16 (1986): 375-376; Mexico City News , May 15, 1992, p. 3. [BACK]

7. In the first two years of legal abortion (1970-1972), "nonwhite" residents had 44.9 percent of the abortions, Puerto Ricans 11.3 percent, and whites, 42.0 percent. Jean Pakter et al., "Two Years Experience in New York City with the Liberalized Abortion Law—Progress and Problems," AJPH 63 (June 1973):

528. On mortality rates and abortion use, see Meyer and Buescher, "Maternal Mortality Related to Induced Abortion in North Carolina," 180, table 1; Institute of Medicine, Legalized Abortion and Public Health , 3, 34—37. [BACK]

8. Rosalind Pollack Petchesky, Abortion and Woman's Choice: The State, Sexuality, and Reproductive Freedom , rev. ed. (1984; reprint, Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1990), 241-299; Rosalind Pollack Petchesky, "Fetal Images: The Power of Visual Culture in the Politics of Reproduction," Feminist Studies 13 (summer 1987): 263-292. [BACK]

9. Samuel A. Mills, "Abortion and Religious Freedom: The Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights (RCAR) and the Pro-Choice Movement, 1973-1989," Journal of Church and State 3 (summer 1991): 569-594; Adele M. Stan, "Frances Kissling: Making the Vatican Sweat," Ms . (September/October 1995): 40-43. [BACK]

10. Stanley K. Henshaw, "Factors Hindering Access to Abortion Services," Family Planning Perspectives 27 (March/April 1995): 58-59; Terry Sollom, "State Actions on Reproductive Health Issues in 1994," Family Planning Perspectives 27 (March/April 1995): 84; NYT , March 11, 1993. [BACK]

11. Pctchesky, Abortion and Woman's Choice , chaps. 7-8. [BACK]

11. Pctchesky, Abortion and Woman's Choice , chaps. 7-8.

12. Ibid., 205-238. [BACK]

13. As Linda Gordon points out, all of us receive welfare benefits (in the form of funding for education and highways, unemployment and social security benefits, and so on), but only state aid to mothers of dependent children (through AFDC) is labeled "welfare" and stigmatized. See Linda Gordon, Pitied but Not Entitled: Single Mothers and the History of Welfare, 1890-1935 (New York: Free Press, 1994). [BACK]

14. This type of private policing has already begun. In a recent Nebraska case, local antiabortionist activists and state authorities—police, prosecutors, and judge—acted in concert to prevent a .young woman from having an abortion and forced her to bear a child. NYT , September 25, 1995, p. A8. [BACK]

15. The only known prosecutions occurred in the 1970s and were political responses to the movement to decriminalize abortion. [BACK]

16. Patricia Stephenson et al., "Commentary: The Public Health Consequences of Restricted Induced Abortion—Lessons from Romania," AJPH 82 (October 1992): 1328-1331. [BACK]

17. NYT , January 31, 1992; NYT , November 23, 1987, pp. 1, 12. Barbara Katz Rothman, Recreating Motherhood: Ideology and Technology in a Patriarchal Society (New York: W. W. Norton, 1989), 87, 159-168. The American College of Obstetrician-Gynecologists has opposed the use of court orders to force c-sections upon women; "Patient Choice: Maternal-Fetal Conflict," ACOG Committee Opinion , no. 55 (October 1987). [BACK]

18. Webster v. Reproductive Health Services , 492 U.S. 490 (1989); Planned Parenthood v. Casey , 112 S. Ct. 2791 (1992). [BACK]

19. The exception for rape exposes the sexual politics of abortion opponents: if the pregnancy resulted from presumably voluntary sexual activity, then it is deserved punishment. Women who are victims, according to this line of thinking, may be permitted to have abortions. [BACK]

20. Almost all insurance plans cover maternity care, about two-thirds cover

induced abortions, and a minority cover contraceptive services. Alan Gutt-macher Institute, Uneven and Unequal: Insurance Coverage and Reproductive Health Services (New York: AGI, 1994), 12-19. [BACK]

21. This is a misnomer; pregnant women are not yet "mothers." Pregnant women looking forward to a child, however, may start relating to the fetus as a child and begin to feel themselves mothers. Barbara Rothman discusses motherhood as a relationship in Recreating Motherhood . [BACK]

22. Sollom, "State Actions on Reproductive Health Issues in 1994," 83; Rachel Benson Gold and Daniel Daley, "Public Funding of Contraceptive, Sterilization, and Abortion Services, Fiscal Year 1990," Family Planning Perspectives 23 (September/October 1991): 210. [BACK]

23. Stanley K. Henshaw and Jennifer Van Vort, "Abortion Services in the United States, 1991 and 1992," Family Planning Perspectives 26 (May/June 1994): 103-112. [BACK]

24. H. Trent MacKay and Andrea Phillips MacKay, "Abortion Training in Obstetrics and Gynecology Residency. Programs in the United States, 1991-1992," Family Planning Perspectives 27 (May/June 1995): 112-115, quotation on I12. [BACK]

25. Webster v. Reproductive Health Services; Planned Parenthood v. Casey . On Webster , see Petchesky, Abortion and Woman's Choice , 314-322. In 1994, nine states had instituted waiting periods and twenty-six enforced parental notification or consent laws. Sollom, "State Actions," 84; Frances A. Althaus and Stanley K. Henshaw, "The Effects of Mandatory Delay Laws on Abortion Patients and Providers," Family Planning Perspectives 26 (September/October 1994): 228-233. [BACK]

26. Richard Phelan, President Cook County Board of Commissioners, public lecture, Urbana, Illinois, fall 1992; Chicago Tribune , January 28, 1995. My thanks to Rose Holz for giving me this clipping. [BACK]

27. Linda Gordon reminds radicals to see the backlash as an indicator of how much society has changed in the past thirty years. [BACK]

28. According to 1993 polls, 83 percent of Americans believe abortion should be legal. Of these, 32 percent think it should be legal "under any circumstances" and 51 percent think it should be legal "only under certain circumstances." Only 13 percent think it should be "illegal in all circumstances." Also interesting is the pro-choice sentiment within the Catholic Church: the majority of Catholics think that a Catholic can have an abortion and still be a "good Catholic" and that the Church should ease its position on abortion. George Gallup Jr., The Gallup Poll, Public Opinion 1993 (Wilmington, Del.: Scholarly Resources, 1994), 73-74, 145-147. [BACK]

29. "Vermont Physician Assistants Perform Abortions, Train Residents," Family Planning Perspectives 24 (September/October 1992): 225; Melanie Bush, "The Doctor Is Out," Voice (June 22, 1993): 18; Katherine McKee and Eleanor Adams, "Nurse Midwives' Attitudes toward Abortion Performance and Related Procedures," Journal of Nurse-Midwifery 39 (September/October 1994): 300-311. [BACK]

30. MacKay and MacKay, "Abortion Training in Obstetrics and Gynecology Residency Programs in the United States, 1991-1992," 112-115. [BACK]

31. Richard Phelan lecture. [BACK]

32. Richard U. Hausknecht, "Methotrexate and Misoprostol to Terminate Early Pregnancy," New England Journal of Medicine 333 (August 31, 1995): 537-540; Etienne-Emile Baulieu, "Contragestion and Other Clinical Applications of RU 486, an Antiprogesterone at the Receptor, Science 245 (September 1989): 1351-1357; James Trussell et al., "Emergency Contraceptive Pills: A Simple Proposal to Reduce Unintended Pregnancies," Family Planning Perspectives 24 (November/December 1992): 269-273. [BACK]

33. Sollom, "State Actions," 84-85. [BACK]

34. Bylle Y. Avery, "Breathing Life into Ourselves: The Evolution of the National Black Women's Health Project," and Faye Wattleton, "Teenage Pregnancy: A Case for National Action," both in The Black Women's Health Book: Speaking for Ourselves , edited by Evelyn C. White (Seattle, Wash.: Seal Press, 1990), 4-10, 107-111. Though African Americans strongly support legal abortion, they are less active in the reproductive rights movement. See Julianne Malveaux, "Black America's Abortion Ambivalence," Emerge 4 (February 1993): 33-34. I am grateful to Vanessa Gamble for sharing the last article with me. [BACK]