Abortions Don’t Decline Despite Rising Violence

The abortion issue is enveloped by controversy.

It pits those who contend that women should control their bodies against those who say abortion is murder.

In recent years, emotions have sometimes boiled over into violence by abortion opponents. But that seems to have had little impact on those seeking and performing the operation.

“People who choose to end pregnancy won’t be deterred by violence and rhetoric,” said Laura Brown, director of the Feminist Women’s Health Center in Los Angeles.

Bombing, Arson Incidents

Since May of 1982, 34 abortion clinics around the country have been targets of bombings and arson, said Jack Killorin, a spokesman for the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in Washington.

The attacks reached their peak in 1984, when 25 occurred. So far this year, Killorin said, the number has dropped to four.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms lists only two attacks in California, both involving arson at the Birth Control Institute in San Diego last year.

The agency does not include incidents where the intent is questionable, and it does not keep track of those like one in Sacramento where an abortion opponent drove an amphibious tank through the front wall of a clinic.

“In the last two to three years, with the increase in violent activity by the anti-abortion movement, we have not seen any decline in the number of providers or patients,” said Barbara Radford, executive director of the Washington-based National Abortion Federation, an industry lobbying group.

Dan Donehey, spokesman for the Washington-based National Right-to-Life League, a lobbyist group for anti-abortion forces, agrees.

Busy Weekends

“Demand is staying high,” Donehey said. “Our best estimate is that it will stay pretty much right where it is.”

Weekends are busy at abortion clinics.

“We offer the operation three days a week, but Saturdays are always the busiest,” said a nurse at one San Diego clinic. “It’s more convenient. People have a chance to recuperate before returning to work or school on Monday.”

The operation most commonly uses suction to remove the fetus and placenta, and it takes fewer than 10 minutes. The woman is sent home after recuperating for about two hours, then returns for a checkup in a couple of weeks.

“We have proved it is a perfectly safe procedure in a clinic as an outpatient,” said Dr. Hugh Anwyl, director of Planned Parenthood of Los Angeles. “It is less dangerous than having your tonsils out.”

Four out of five abortions are performed in clinics and doctors’ offices, with the women being handled as outpatients. More than 90% are done in the first three months of pregnancy, during which time they can be performed without restriction.

No State Restrictions

Under federal rules, states may impose restrictions on abortions in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy, but California has not done so.

Many doctors stop performing abortions after about 22 weeks of pregnancy, but the operation generally can be obtained through the sixth month, the point at which it is presumed the fetus would have a possibility of surviving by itself outside the womb.

A profile of Californians who receive abortions parallels national statistics. Most are white, unmarried and in their 20s. About 26% are teen-agers.

In 1981, according to a 1984 special report from the California Senate Office of Research, 70,143, or 49%, of the state’s 143,160 pregnant teen-agers had abortions.

By law, teen-agers having abortions or getting contraceptives can insist that their parents not be notified. Critics are seeking state legislation to require women 17 years old and under to get a parent’s consent before having an abortion.

Most abortions occur in major cities.

Only 2% of the operations nationwide occurred in non-metropolitan areas in 1982, according to a study by New York-based Alan Guttmacher Institute, the research arm of Planned Parenthood.

30% in L.A. County

In California, 78,830, or nearly 30%, of the state’s 265,740 abortions were performed in Los Angeles County, followed by San Diego County with 25,900, or 9.7%; Alameda County with 20,820, or 7.8%; San Francisco County with 18,540, or 7%, and San Bernardino County with 15,780, or 5.9%.

Anwyl expects little change in the number of unwanted pregnancies or abortions.

“I expect the number will remain pretty stable until we come up with even more effective options in terms of contraception,” Anwyl said.

One reason for so many unexpected pregnancies and so many abortions is the feeling that a woman is promiscuous if she uses contraceptives, Anwyl said.

“Until attitudes change and people treat contraception like any other preventive medicine, such as a vaccination, the abortion rate is unlikely to drop,” he said.

Abortions increased by 250% between 1973, when the United States Supreme Court issued its landmark decision legalizing the operation, and 1981.

1.6 Million in 1981

The number reached a plateau in 1981 with 1.6 million a year being done nationwide and 265,740 in California. It has remained about the same since then, officials say.

Information about abortions is generally available only in the most general terms. Many individuals and companies agreed to provide information only on condition that they not be identified.

Some cited concerns of retaliation by abortion opponents.

“People are very afraid to have information about themselves released,” said Ellen Blaine of the Guttmacher Institute, which jealously guards the confidentiality of those who participate in its surveys.

“They feel that the level of volatility would be expected to rise if the information were made public.”