Two years before the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. It was less invasive than dilation and curettage, a procedure that uses a surgical instrument to scrape the uterine walls. Karman’s method took only a few minutes and had been nicknamed a “lunch-hour abortion” because patients could return to regular activities afterward. The owner, a psychologist named Harvey Karman, had designed a slender, flexible straw-now known as a Karman cannula, and a standard piece of medical equipment-which he used to draw the contents of a uterus into a large syringe. In 1971, members of her feminist self-help group had been familiarizing themselves with the work of an illegal abortion clinic in Santa Monica. That distinction goes to Lorraine Rothman, an Orange County public-school teacher and activist. But watching the scene on the beach towel brought history into focus with startling clarity: Women did this the last time abortion was illegal.Įllie didn’t invent this device. When she drew back the plunger on the syringe, dark fluid coursed through the aquarium tubing and into the mason jar, collecting slowly within the diamond-patterned glass.
Next, to show more clearly how the suction process works, she placed the cannula into her coffee. Holding the anatomical model, Ellie traced a path with the tip of the cannula into the vagina and through the cervix, positioning it to suction out the contents of the uterus. One was connected to a cannula, the other to the syringe. The two segments of tubing protruded from the holes in the stopper.
It looked like a cross between an at-home beer-brewing kit and a seventh-grade science experiment. In less than 10 minutes, Ellie had finished the project: a simple abortion device. She snipped the aquarium tubing into a pair of foot-long segments and attached the valve to the syringe’s plastic tip. She also didn’t want to risk revealing where she lives-and asked me to withhold her name-because of concerns about harassment or violence from anti-abortion extremists.Įllie snugged the rubber stopper into the mason jar. The woman, whom I’ll call Ellie, had suggested that we meet at the beach she had recently recovered from COVID-19, and proposed the open-air setting for my safety. Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read.
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