Medical witnesses were agreed that, while the immediate risk to life in surgically performed termination of pregnancy was slight, there were very definite possibilities of more remote disabilities, and that such sequelæ occurred in a considerable proportion of cases.
In the case of a genuine therapeutic abortion these risks are outweighed by the dangers of the condition calling for the termination of pregnancy, but were the operation to be performed freely for social reasons the effect in the community might be very serious.
World-wide interest has been aroused in the matter through the experience on Soviet Russia, where, for a number of years, abortion for social and economic reasons was legalized and extensively practised.
The operations were performed in special hospitals and by skilled operators.
At first it was claimed that when the operation was done openly and carefully the risk to life was exceedingly small. It was stated, for instance, that in 1926 artificial abortion was carried out on 29,306 women in Moscow with no mortality, and that in a total of 175,000 operations in Moscow there were only nine deaths.
But now come most significant reports of the after-effects to these operations, which state that 43 per cent. of these women suffered from some definite illness as a result of the operation, and that "the most enthusiastic Russian advocates of legalized abortion are appalled at the growing evidence of serious pelvic disturbances, endocrine dysfunctions, sterility, ectopic pregnancy, and other complications following in the wake of artificial abortions."[3 ]
A recognition of these remoter dangers has undoubtedly been an important factor in bringing about the complete reversal of the previous policy in Russia, where abortion for social and economic reasons is now illegal.
The opinion of A. M. Ludovici, admittedly an extreme exponent, may well be considered when, in "The Case against Legalized Abortion"[4 ] he writes:—
"If only the disingenuous propaganda in favour of legalized abortion would cease, and if only those who carried it on refrained from dinning into the ears of an uninformed gallery of women the alleged safety and harmlessness of abortion carried out under the best hospital conditions, there would be less eagerness to face the ordeal of criminal abortion.
"So long as ignorant women are led to believe that abortion, when skilfully performed, is as easy and harmless as having a corn extracted, they will naturally infer that it can be done just as harmlessly in secret as in public, especially if they are assured that the surreptitious abortionist is skilled, as presumably they always are, and are, moreover, kept in total darkness concerning the kind of operation that is necessary for the interruption of pregnancy.