Doctors of Conscience: The Struggle to Provide Abortion before and after Roe V. Wade by Carol E. Joffe

From the Publisher

The battle for legal abortion in the United States may have been won, but access to safe medical abortions is rapidly narrowing. Some 84 percent of all U.S. counties are now without abortion facilities, and the situation is growing worse. How are we to explain the crisis of abortion access? In Doctors of Conscience, Carole Joffe argues that in addition to the violence and disruption of the anti-abortion movement, the medical community itself must share the blame. Joffe traces the ways mainstream medicine has marginalized abortion even after Roe vs. Wade, by failing to establish needed training and services and by stigmatizing and penalizing doctors who perform abortions. The costs have been high - not only for women with unwanted pregnancies, but also for doctors committed to providing safe medical abortions. Based on in-depth interviews with forty-five physicians who have provided or facilitated abortions, Doctors of Conscience recalls the days before Roe, when emergency rooms were filled with women maimed and infected by botched abortions. Witnessing the desperation of women seeking illegal abortions was a turning point in the careers of many of the doctors interviewed. After Roe, they continued to be haunted by their experiences.

Publishers Weekly

Despite the lingering image of ``back-alley butchers'' performing abortions in the era before the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalized the procedure, not all doctors who provided abortion were incompetent or greedy. Joffe, a sociology professor at UC-Davis, interviewed 45 doctors-35 men, 10 women-who either performed illegal abortions or engaged in related activities such as providing backup medical services to patients and campaigning for legalization. She found her respondents to be competent, caring and motivated by conscience and compassion for women with unwanted pregnancies. The doctors' experience prior to Roe convinced them of the imperative need for legalization, and in the years after 1973, they not only faced harassment from the antiabortion movement but also engaged in a broader struggle-hospitals yielding to antiabortion pressure and shutting down services, hostile landlords, isolation and stigmatization within the medical community. Today some 84% of U.S. counties lack abortion facilities. Joffe's urgent report outlines the role the medical community could play in improving abortion services. (Dec.)

Library Journal

This book examines the abortion controversy from a new point of view. Using interviews with 45 pro-choice physicians, sociologist Joffe uncovers the role of the medical professon in marginalizing abortion service. Since the medical establishment still views the procedure and its practitioners as criminal despite Roe v. Wade, it isolates abortion by putting this service in freestanding clinics away from hospitals, fails to train medical students and residents in its procedures, and stigmatizes doctors who provide it. Despite these obstacles, dedicated physicians have helped women both before and after the legalization of abortion, often at great personal risk. They continue to do so, working to improve access to care for all women and training for healthcare providers. Unlike Patricia Miller's The Worst of Times (LJ 2/15/93) and Anna Bonvavoglia's The Choices We Made (LJ 12/90), which contain only personal accounts of women who had abortions, this book places the experiences of physicians within a discussion of important health policy issues. Highly recommended for all collections.-Barbara M. Bibel, Oakland P.L., Cal.

BookList

Joffe tackles the troubling topic of the national crisis in abortion care post"Roe "v". Wade "from a unique perspective. She interviewed 45 "doctors of conscience" who provided abortions pre-Roe, worked for legalization, and, ultimately, constituted the first generation of pro-choicers in the field. These physicians literally wrote the books on improved abortion techniques, helped establish clinics, and worked for increased hospital abortion services. Unfortunately, their work is undermined today, not only by antiabortion terrorists but also by the mainstream medical community's response to that terrorism. Gerzon argues that women are victims of that community's treatment of doctors of conscience who are stigmatized and penalized. Nearly all that sustains them is an undying dedication hidden under their bullet-proof vests.

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