His Claims Concerning Normal Medical Procedures Are Disputed : Quayle Urges Post-Rape Care as Abortion Alternative

Dan Quayle on Wednesday reiterated that women made pregnant by rape should not be permitted to have abortions, but contended that normal medical procedures performed after a rape would prevent “life and conception” from occurring.

The Republican vice presidential nominee cited post-rape treatment as an alternative when a questioner asked him if a woman raped by furloughed convict Willie Horton should have to bear Horton’s child if he had impregnated her.

Quayle first stressed that, “The (current) laws of the land certainly would allow her to have an abortion if she wanted one,” but said he was personally opposed to abortion except in cases in which the life of the mother was endangered.

He then added: “In the case of rape, hopefully they would seek medical attention immediately, and under normal medical procedure, life and conception would not even begin.”

In answers to reporters’ questions, Quayle later identified the procedure as a “D and C,” or dilation and curettage, a scraping of the uterine walls. He said that if a D and C were performed “right after a rape . . . life would not even be formed.”

‘Normal’ Procedure

“It is a normal, medical procedure and I do not construe that as abortion,” Quayle said.

But medical experts, including Dr. Robert Shesser, a specialist in emergency care medicine at the George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, said that a D and C is seldom effective unless conception has already occurred.

Emergency room doctors most often offer rape victims a “morning after” pill that changes a woman’s body chemistry to make the uterus unreceptive to an egg, Shesser said. Not until the fertilized egg has attached itself to the wall of the uterus does the D and C procedure become most effective, he said.

Gail Abarbanel, director of Santa Monica Hospital’s Rape Treatment Center, said it would be “absurd” to treat a rape victim with a D and C, a surgical procedure, because the sperm and egg cells are so microscopic that they could be easily overlooked.

She also noted that the chance of pregnancy following forcible rape is very small--3% to 5%--and would not justify exposing all rape victims to the risks inherent in surgery.

States Personal Preference

In his original remarks, in a news conference with regional reporters here, Quayle said that “once a life takes place, my personal preference is for that life to be able to continue.”

Under questioning later from reporters, Quayle said he understood that “after a rape is reported, the woman, normally, in fact, can go to the hospital, have a D and C, and at that time that is before the actual forming of a life. And that has nothing to do with abortion.”

He grew impatient and accused reporters of “nit-picking” when asked whether he would continue to advocate that D and C if the egg were already fertilized. “Now you’re getting into all sorts of very difficult medical terminologies,” he said. “You know my views on abortion.”

Quayle has voted repeatedly in favor of legislation that would allow states to pass anti-abortion legislation. His opposition to abortion is even more stringent than that of Republican presidential nominee George Bush, who would allow exceptions in cases of rape and incest as well as when the mother is endangered.

But the Indiana senator’s advocacy of D and C--which if performed after conception would literally be abortion--seemed to put him in conflict with anti-abortion activists.

Calls Stand ‘Consistent’

However, Dr. John C. Willke, president of National Right to Life in Washington, said Quayle’s position is “consistent with the right to life position,” which is to do “anything that is aimed at preventing conception and then quite obviously there’s no baby there and there’s no chance of an abortion.”

Willke said, however, that D and C is “not the most common treatment” and that physicians usually “don’t give anything because they know the odds for pregnancy are so minuscule” in forcible rape cases.

Quayle’s remarks on abortion provided a focal point for an otherwise slow-paced campaign day whose principal event was--once again--a pep talk to a high school assembly. Arriving Wednesday evening for a rally in an airport hangar, Quayle paused and did a double take. “Another high school?” he asked.

Staff writer Anne C. Roark contributed to this story.