For Privacy's Sake: A Risky End To Unwanted Pregnancies

Amalia Dominguez was 18 and desperate and knew exactly what to ask for at the small, family-run pharmacy in the heart of Washington Heights, the thriving Dominican enclave in northern Manhattan. "I need to bring down my period," she recalled saying in Spanish, using a euphemism that the pharmacist understood instantly.

It was 12 years ago, but the memory remains vivid: She was handed a packet of pills. They were small and white, $30 for 12. Ms. Dominguez, two or three months pregnant, went to a friend's apartment and swallowed the pills one by one, washing them down with malta, a molasseslike extract sold in nearly every bodega in the neighborhood.

The cramps began several hours later, doubling Ms. Dominguez over, building and building until, eight and a half hours later, she locked herself in the bathroom and passed a lifeless fetus, which she flushed.

The pills were misoprostol, a prescription drug that is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for reducing gastric ulcers and that researchers say is commonly, though illegally, used within the Dominican community to induce abortion. Two new studies by reproductive-health providers suggest that improper use of such drugs is one of myriad methods, including questionable homemade potions, frequently employed in attempts to end pregnancies by women from fervently anti-abortion cultures despite the widespread availability of safe, legal and inexpensive abortions in clinics and hospitals.

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Comments

[mamacat]

I hate abortions, but I hate the needless deaths of young women even more.

For various reasons, women are going to demand abortions, legal or illegal.

[larry278]

As I read this story I thought of my aunt who died due to the complications of an illegal abortion. We need to make abortion available to all women. We must keep abortion safe & legal plus available to all women. That will be like flowers on my aunt's grave & the graves of all women who died because of illegal abortions. A donation to Planned Parenthood is a better memorial than having a mass said for her.

[rmetz74]

This is the kind of thing that will happen more and more if Roe v. Wade is weakened further. Abortion opponents must understand that the path to reducing abortion is through real sex education and support for organizations like Planned Parenthood, not through the courts.