Second-Trimester Abortion: Perspectives After a Decade of Experience

Irvin M. Cushner, MD, MPH It is both remarkable and, at the same time, a sign of this era of rapid change that one can refer back to the "infancy" of a field which has existed for barely more than a decade. Yet, one now reads of the "maturing" of the family planning and abortion fields, both of which were incorporated into our society and integrated into our health care system within the past ten years. Indeed, in the very year that this book is being prepared, we note the tenth anniversaries of several significant events of 1970: 1) the enactment of Title X of the Public Health Service Act, establishing a Federal program in family planning; 2) the first issuance by a major health-related organization (the APHA) of a policy statement advocating repeal of all abortion laws; and 3) the enactment, by New York State, of an abortion law whose only restric- tion was that it be performed by a licensed physician and the subse- quent action, the first by any local health department (New York City), to assure both its implementation and its quality. They were, indeed, eventful days. These three events seemed to presage a then-unprecedented acceptance of fertility regulation as a right and as a needed service.