KU
77th Year, No.136
Serving KU For 77 of its 101 Years
WEATHER CLOUDY
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
See details below
Tuesday, May 16, 1967
How many choose abortion at KU?
By RICHARD LUNDQUIST
Clouded by fear and obscured by silence, abortion exists in an underground of fact, rumor and uncertainty at KU.
That it does exist is shown by the story accompanying this one—the story of a KU coed who chose abortion.
She had two other choices—get married and keep the baby, or have the baby illegitimately and give it up for adoption.
ESTIMATES from some sources say as many as one million abortions are performed in the United States each year.
Some doctors say 99 per cent of these abortions are illegal.
How many of these criminal abortions involve college coeds is a matter of speculation.
"I would assume this (abortion) is a pretty frequent thing," Dr. Raymond Schwegler, director
First of a two-part series
of the student health center, said. "We know from our diagnosis in the hospital it is a fair-sized problem."
He said it is common for unmarried, pregnant coeds to seek help from staff members at Watkins Hospital.
"WE GET CRUMBS of evidence from girls who say, 'Don't worry about that, I have all the contacts.'" Schwegler said.
He said the student health center admits about five coeds a year who are suffering from complications brought on by incorrectly performed abortions.
One student said he had recommended a Kansas City abortionist to about a dozen couples; a girl who had received an abortion said she knew of four other girls.
A Lawrence physician, Dr. Howard Wilcox, said he treats "about a half-dozen coeds each year" who come to him because of complications following an abortion.
But how many more go outside
One girl who had been aborted
Lawrence for treatment? And how many coeds are aborted each year without suffering complications?
- * * *
NO ONE CAN ANSWER that question.
But Emily Taylor, dean of women, said, "To the best of my knowledge, abortions involving KU coeds do not occur on a large scale."
SPU decides
What makes a liberal
What makes a liberal liberal?
What makes a radical radical?
This was the major topic of discussion of the KU Student Peace Union meeting last night in the Kansas Union Cottonwood Room.
Seniors: get caps, gowns
Seniors who will be graduating June 5 should pick up their caps and gowns at the KU Alumni Office, 127 Strong, by Friday.
Jim Crumpler, publicity chairman for the Class of '67, said today that those who fail to pick up their caps and gowns by Friday will not receive them.
After a brief business discussion of the upcoming demonstration at the chancellor's ROTC review this Friday afternoon, members began to discuss degrees of idealism in the peace effort.
He said the caps and gowns of seniors who have paid their class fees are covered. However, those who have not paid the fees will be charged $4.50.
"THEIR MONEY ALSO will not be refunded," he said. "This should provide an added incentive."
Crumpler suggested that seniors also get a "Senior Reminder" pamphlet in which the instructions for graduation are listed.
ONE MEMBER SAID he had recently become "radicalized" and at queries from others present to explain his feeling.
"Is it a difference in one's degree of literal interpretation of values that distinguishes a radical from a liberal?" another asked him.
"Yes."
He said radicals affirm more realistically the true values of society.
He agreed that the difference lies in the individual's "practical tactics."
BUT HE DENIED that liberals are more practical than the radical element.
Another member offered the suggestion that the "radical works from the bottom up while the liberal works from the top down."
A heated argument ensued on which method would in the end prove more effective.
The liberal sympathizers submitted that "punch in the nose" could not have positive effect.
"FLAG BURNING serves only to harden the more patriotic," one said.
put the number at more than 100 girls each year.
AND THE NUMBER could rise.
AND THE NUMBER could rise.
Wilcox said a girl once told him she would have never had her baby if she had known how easy it is to get an abortion.
But the coed who decides upon an abortion must live with her decision the rest of her life.
"The psychological reaction to abortion is often very profound," Schwegler said. "The ones who get involved are the ones least poised to handle the problem."
HE SAID A GIRL will often get pregnant because of emotional problems. If she then has an abortion, she compounds her problems.
Wilcox said, "We have had many girls with emotional problems who feel a past abortion was the precipitating factor."
He gave an example of one girl who had an abortion when she was fifteen. Even though she is now married, memories of the abortion still haunt her.
"To the best of our knowledge," Schwegler said, "abortions are all done outside of town.
"Indirectly, we have reason to believe there are abortionists in Kansas City and Topeka," he said. "Almost every large city has them."
Annual coming soon
"Barring a breakdown, the Jayhawker will be out before summer," Tom Yoe, Jayhawker adviser, said.
The third edition of the 1966-67 Jayhawk Magazine yearbook definitely will be distributed before classes close.
"The editors have even set a date," he said, "but I'll believe it when it happens."
That unannounced deadline was circulated among members of the Jayhawker Board at their meeting yesterday afternoon.
The board also elected Brent Waldron, Denison, Iowa, sophomore, business manager of next year's Jayhawker.
Editor for the 1967-68 yearbook will be elected by the board next Monday afternoon.
WEATHER
Clear to partly cloudy skies, with a low tonight in the 40's, are forecasted by the U.S. Weather Bureau. Continued cloudy tomorrow and a precipitation probability of ten per cent tonight and five per cent tomorrow.
Abortion-A high-priced nightmare
(Editor's note: The following story is the account of a KU coed's abortion in December, 1966. The name of the abortionist is known, but the girl and the man who accompanied her do not wish to sign affidavits against the abortionist.)
By JERRY BEAN
Tears welled in her eyes when the elevator reached the seventh floor and the antiseptic odor saturating the air penetrated to them.
Eight other women already were in the waiting room; two other girls, in their late teens or early twenties, walked into the room with pain on their faces.
She walked toward the door just as the nurse put out a sign. The "doctor" was in.
The girl was a KU coed. She was not married. And she was pregnant. This was the day she was to get an abortion—illegally.
Only 45 minutes later, the first eight women had seen the "doctor," and the coed and the man with her were ushered into a central room.
"PULL DOWN YOUR PANTIES," the nurse told the girl. "Lie down on the table and I'll give you a shot to help things along." She filled a syringe.
"I'll take as good care of her as if you were standing over me with a shotgun" the doctor smiled mechanically at the man with the coed.
Then the girl was gone, into the doctor's office with its country desk cluttered with Ovulen prescription pads; a brown, leather-covered table with a napkin placed where the coed would sit, a high-intensity light permanently fixed to the wall so the light would shine on the napkin.
WHERE THE MAN WAITED there came only sounds. The clink of metal instruments casually tossed into metal pans. Groans. More clinks, more groans.
Even before it was over, a high school girl was led into the room where the man waited and told to remove her panties and hold a pad in place. The nurse had to leave to "help the doctor."
The semi-nude high school girl was on the table awaiting her shot when the KU coed was half-led, half carried, out of the "doctor's" office, past the high school girl and into a third room.
For ten minutes the coed leaned over a sink, vomiting, trying to rid her system of a pain pill swallowed moments before.
THE ONLY FOOD THE COED had been allowed for three days was soup, unsweatened fruit juice and pills—the vomiting, the scraping, had weakened her to the point she needed help to walk.
She was still sobbing, bent double, when the nurse came back minutes later.
This was Monday, the third time the girl had seen the "doctor." She had gone to him because friends at KU who had abortions had recommended him, as well as a doctor in Lawrence and a second man in Kansas City.
The nurse gave the couple a quick lecture—on meals, the probable dates of the next normal mensturation, the advisability of birth control pills. She apologized for not spending more time with the couple—less than 40 minutes. Cost $340.
It took 30 minutes to walk to the car—a walk that had taken three minutes such a short time before.
The couple would please hurry; the "doctor" was to see 21 women that day and the "recovery" room was needed quickly for the high school girl.
THE COUPLE LEFT BY A SIDE DOOR — the nurse asked them not to walk through the reception room. They were to come back the next day for a check-up; then the girl was on her own.
When the appointment with the "doctor" was made, she felt better.
"THIS SOUNDS FUNNY, but we made plans for the weekend just as if we were going shopping or on an outing," she said.
"I never thought of the operation in terms of Continued on page 5