Medical vs. surgical abortion.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)

The principal advantage of medical abortion over the surgical procedure is that it is performed in a physician's office and offers a greater guarantee of privacy ("Limit Medical Abortions," Letters, Feb. 15, p. 6).

This issue is so important to some women that a slight increase in risk would be acceptable. The need for privacy, as opposed to intramural pregnancy or large cervical fibroids, is the main reason why medical abortion is used. Unfortunately, the guarantee of privacy is not always absolute. If the doctor has his own ultrasound equipment, that is probably enough to follow the patient post abortion. Otherwise, at least two quantitative HCG tests will be needed and will thus involve a laboratory technician. However, a woman belonging to a prolife church group, who, without any formal change in her intellectual position, feels that she simply must abort her accidental pregnancy, would feel more exposed at an abortion clinic than in the doctor's office.

As for surgical abortion, which Dr. E. Hakim-Elahi extols, it is usually safe. So is medical abortion, but it also has its risk--chiefly perforation, which if unrecognized may have catastrophic consequences. There also are cases of infection, ...