Conference turris::womannotes-v2

    Nancy,
    
    For more information, and a very informative video, write to
    
    "No Going Back"
    1043 University Ave #169
    San Diego, CA  92103
    
    As this is a non-profit organization, a SASE and if possible, a
    donation should be enclosed with inquiries.
    
    Meg

    
    Copied here because of the obvious relevance.
    
    							=maggie
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Note 183.1024    Abortion Concerns (*READ .779 BEFORE REPLYING*)    1024 of 1024
DICKNS::STANLEY "What a long, strange trip its been" 65 lines  31-JUL-1989 11:19
              -< Do-it-yourself At Home Abortions [moved by =m] >-
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Will the moderators please move this note if they feel it belongs elsewhere.

From Sunday's Telegram:


HOME ABORTION KIT MAKING THE ROUNDS
The Baltimore Sun

"LOS ANGELES - Preparing for a time when abortion may become illegal, women's
health care activists have begun to gather in self-help groups across the
United States to teach do-it-yourself abortions.

the controversial procedure, called menstrual extraction, is used widely in
Third World countries, and was coming into vogue in the women's movement in the
early 1970s just before the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion.

Interest in the home procedure has heightened since the Supreme Court decided
in early July to uphold a Missouri law restricting abortion, and implicitly
invited other states to enact abortion curbs.

The Federation of Feminist Women's Health Centers, which has its headquarters
here, demonstrated the home abortion procedure at the annual conference of the
National Organization for Women in Cincinnati a week ago.

'The response was pretty remarkable," said Carol Downer, executive director of
the federation, a network of 20 abortion clinics in California, Oregon,
Washington, Georgia and Florida.  She said that several thousand dollars worth
of printed and videotaped instructional materials, as well as menstrual
extraction devices, were sold at the conference.

NOW President Molly Yard said that the group has no official position on the
procedure, however.

Ms. Downer plans to teach the procedure during a nationwide tour of women's
health centers this fall, much as she did in 1971 when she introduced the
procedure to a generation of child-bearing American Women who then were
prohibited by law from undergoing an abortion.

In a menstrual extraction, a four-millimeter plastic tube is inserted into the
uterus, whose contents - blood, clots and small bits of tissue - are suctioned
into a jar with a hand-pump.  The federation sells the kits for $89.95 but the
tools are basic and can be purchased in hardware stores and medical supply
shops.

The procedure takes 20 to 30 minutes, compared with about 5 minutes for an
abortion using electronic means, as is tyupically done in a doctor's office. 
Extraction normally requires an experienced person to operate the device.  It
does not require anesthesia, nor does it require cervical dilation.

As its name implies, the procedure is used to "extract" a woman's menstrual
period.  Ms. Downer said that it is useful for women who suffer from severe
cramping, or for those who wish to avoid having a period because it would
interfere with travel, vacation or an athletic event.

It can also be used to terminate an early pregnancy - extracting a fertilized
egg along with the other contents of the uterus.  It is recommended that the
procedure not be used after the sixth week of pregnancy.

Many in the mainstream medical community frown on the procedure, and question
its safely and effectiveness.  The past spring, the American College of
Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommended that menstruyal extraction not be
fostered as an "appropriate" technique for abortion, according to Kate Ruddon,
a spokeswomen for the professional organization.
                                                                            
    Mary Stanley

    I never heard of this before (OK, so I am medically naive...).  Apart
    from the abortion possibility, does anyone know anything about this
    "menstrual extraction" for the purpose suggested by the name of the
    procedure - remove all the menstrual flow in one pass??  Boy, does that
    ever sound like an attractive idea, especially in hot, sticky weather!
    
    I can just picture it now: once a month, I walk into the "women's
    clinic", the nice people there do their thing for half an hour or so,
    and then I go on with my life.  No more tampons, no more messy
    "napkins", no more cramps, no more cancelling swimming and hiking
    plans, no more scheduling vacations to try to avoid "the plague", no
    more embarrassing stained underwear,....
    
    I assume it must be too good to be true, right??
    
     But I can hope!!
    
    
    /Charlotte
                                     

Newsweek had a bit on this in their issue of a few weeks ago just after
the Supreme Court ruling.  It didn't say anything that wasn't in the
article Mary posted.  I seem to recall reading something about a mason
jar and aquarium tubing.

I wonder if this will appear in the next Whole Earth Catalog.  It would
be a natural....

				Steve

      The new "our bodies ourselves" discusses menstral extraction with
      medical explainations. I too thought it seemed a grand way to get
      rid of your period. I still remember when I was in high school and
      first heard of birth contol pills. I though they stopped you from
      having periods at all. I wanted them immediately even though I
      wasn't having sex with anyone. I was sooooo disapointed when I
      found out they only prevented pregnancy and not periods. liesl

    Menstrual extraction kits, I have heard, should not be used unless
    they absolutely *must* - and then by a fairly trained hand if possible.
    It is possible to hurt/puncture the uterine wall if it's not done
    carefully, and that could have extremely bad consequences.  Also,
    if the suction is powerful enough, it may have the same results
    as an abortion in that (form feed for the squeamish)
    
    it somehow removes a layer of the lining in the uterus or somesuch,
    forcing the uterus to require several weeks to heal - resulting in more
    blood clotting and being expelled as the uterine lining heals from the
    procedure. 
    
    -Jody 

    I just read an article about this in the Sunday paper.  The headline
    was "Do-it-Yourself Abortion Kits".  It stated how the N.O.W.
    Organization was giving demonstrations on how to use this device.
    
    Seemed pretty dangerous to me and awfully scarey.  
    
    TB

    Do-it-Yourself Abortion Kits publicized in the Sunday paper.  I may
    vomit.
    
    Marge

    Marge,
    
    That was exactly the reaction I got.  It was a shocking article.
    
    TB

    The descriptions  I've  seen require some level of training before
    performing  this  procedure.  I'm  not  sure  if  you can do it on
    yourself.  All  the  descriptions I've seen recommend not doing it
    routinely  for  all the normal reasons to avoid doctors. Who knows
    what the long term effects are, there's always some risk, ....

    At the  abortion rights march in Washington, there were flyers for
    a  video  tape on menstrual extraction kits. I gave my copy of the
    flyer  to  my  sister, and I'm not sure if she bought a tape. (She
    was  planning  to  for her college women's group.) I'll ask her if
    she's seen it, and if so what it says about monthly use.

--David

    The extraction kits have been around since at least the early 70's or
    late 60's.  If the procedure were as simple as it sounds, the sani
    napkin and tampon businesses would probably go broke!
    
    Nancy

    From what I understand, it can be used on oneself if one has knows
    what one is doing.  It is supposed to be fairly widely used in 
    third world countries.  If done properly and without complications
    there shouldn't be too much of a problem with long term effects.
    
    
    Well,... it's better than a coat hanger anyway.

    >Well,... it's better than a coat hanger anyway.
    
    Well put, Mary.
    
    Kate
    

    It is  certainly  safer than a coathanger for abortions. I suspect
    that  using  it  every  month  to  shorten one's period might have
    noticeable side effects.

--David

    yes, menstrual extraction is safer than a coathanger.
    
    however, even in competent hands it _can_ result in uncontrolled
    bleeding.  monthly self-administration could prove hazardous.
    
    i'm not painting this as a highly dangerous process; from what i
    gathered in the early 70's it is not.
    
    much has been made of the fact that mentrual extraction is an entirely
    legal process.  well, yes.  so is/was d&c.  the extraction process was
    used pretty widely in the early 70's by the 'names' one could get to
    terminate pregnancies.  the use of the extraction process to terminate
    pregnancies was underground.  it was underground because it was illegal
    to end those pregnancies, not because the process itself was illegal.
    
    i suspect that, if abortions become highly restricted, it will go
    underground again.
    
    i have written elsewhere of a young woman i knew in college who died of
    a botched abortion. just such a process was used to terminate her
    pregnancy. she was one of the unlucky ones.
    
      ann

    I checked  with  my  sister  this morning. She hasn't yet seen the
    film (It's between semesters not, so they won't buy the tape until
    the  next  school  year  starts),  but she does know of a group of
    about  15  women  who  had  been  practicing  menstrual extraction
    monthly  for  about  8  years.  I  don't know what the predominant
    reason  was,  but  it  was  their  primary  (and  only)  means  of
    contraception  for  that  period. They had no problems during that
    time. Three of the women subsequently had children.

    She said that it isn't hard to do, but you need someone to spend a
    considerable amount of time teaching you first.

    She said  that it did reduce the length of long painful periods to
    about three days.  I don't know whether it reduced the pain.

--David

    Gosh, I'm hurting just reading all of this!!!  It sounds painful,
    dangerous, and scary to me.  I just don't understand how something
    like this could be used successfully month after month with no side
    effects.  It seems like it would put your body in shock.  As far
    as using it for abortion, I wouldn't use it or recommend anyone
    using it if they weren't trained to use it or had someone do it
    that was trained.
    
    Virginia