The bad old days: clandestine abortions among the poor in New York City before liberalization of the abortion law.

: In surveys of poverty neighborhoods in New York City conducted in 1965 and 1967, it became apparent that clandestine abortions were more frequently reported as occurring when the woman was married and had one to three children than before marriage or after three children had already been born. Knowledge of persons who could induce an abortion was not very common among the women interviewed, and most of those who were known did not have any specialized medical training. Physicians were involved in only two percent of the respondents' own reported abortion attempts and in six percent of those among their friends, relatives and acquaintances. There was a fairly large variety of methods known and used that were supposed to provoke an abortion. The largest proportion of these were substances taken by mouth--some of which, like turpentine, Chlorox and massive doses of quinine, are quite dangerous. The next largest group involved uterine insertions. Other types of methods like massage and baths were quite rare. The popularity of the oral route of administration may be relevant to biomedical researchers who are developing new fertility regulating methods and are concerned about their acceptability.