Abortion Procedure

How is it that so many laypeople have become medical experts since the debate over the grossly labeled “partial-birth abortion” began? The Times printed a letter from a gentleman who said, “There is no situation in which partial-birth abortion is necessary to permit future childbearing” (May 30).

Perhaps this individual and others like him could read about the risks of having a Caesarean section before the uterus has expanded, when the doctor has to cut through a thick wall of tissue. It not only badly damages the uterus, it presents the possibility that the woman will bleed to death.

A medical doctor, Dr. James McMahon, developed this procedure specifically to preserve a woman’s life and fertility despite a catastrophic pregnancy. How is it that so many people without medical training know better than he?

SUELLEN B. CRAIG, President Planned Parenthood

Los Angeles