SPEAK OUT!

cold, accurate, records.

In 1982 I was an Ob/Gyn resident in New York City. One of the hospitals I worked in had a log book in the Gynecology Emergency Room. It was an old, thick book, and its entries started in the 1960’s. Sometimes when I was waiting for a patient, I’d read it, starting with the oldest entries. The book recorded the stories of women who had been admitted with septic abortions,complications of illegal ‘back alley’ abortions, or sometimes the result of self induced abortions, using knitting needles or hangers. Sometimes the reason for admission was listed as “attempted out of hospital illegal abortion”. The next column listed the procedures which were done to try to treat the patients; D&C’s, (scraping of the uterus), hysterectomies, and surgical treatment of abscesses. The last column recorded the outcomes. Many were hospitalized for weeks, some had multiple operations. Many of these women died, some as young as 12, some over 40. There were pages and pages of these records; records of women who were maimed and died because abortion was illegal. 

I last read these log books more than 20 years ago, but when I close my eyes, I can still see the handwritten entries; cold, accurate records of women who suffered and died.