Legal Abortions and Other Choices

I sympathize with the woman (S.L. Davis, Letters, Feb. 19) who shared information about her ordeal while having an illegal abortion. I agree wholeheartedly that no woman should be subjected to such pain and suffering. However, it seems that she had other choices. It appears that she yielded to the pressures of her husband instead of seeking competent medical advice and, possibly, having her child adopted, which might have been safer at that point.

My firsthand experience concerns an RH-negative mother who was advised by her obstetrician not to become pregnant. The woman and her doctor later learned that she was pregnant. She subsequently had a legal abortion at an advanced state of pregnancy. Her baby weighed over 2 pounds.

It was a healthy, beautifully formed male child who actually cried and alerted the hospital laboratory staff. The infant was then placed in an intensive care unit of the hospital. My colleagues and I were shocked. We cared for this little infant. Unfortunately, because of the traumatic birth, heroic efforts failed to keep him alive for more than a month.

As I write this, I am still incensed that this particular abortion took place. I fear that all too often, abortion privileges have been abused. It is in observing and touching little victims that one is moved to address concerns over legalized abortion.

M. O’CONNOR

Huntington Beach