"Someone gave me the phone number of a person who did abortions and I made the arrangements."I borrowed about $300 from my roommate and went alone to a dirty, run‐down bungalow in a dangerous neighborhood in east Los Angeles.
"A greasy looking man came to the door and asked for the money as soon as I walked in.
"He told me to take off all my clothes except my blouse; there was a towel to wrap around myself.
"I got up on a cold metal kitchen table. He performed a procedure, using something sharp.
"He didn’t give me anything for the pain — he just did it. He said that he had packed me with some gauze, that I should expect some cramping, and that I would be fine.
"I left."
‐ Polly Bergen, discussing the illegal abortion in the 1940s that rendered her infertile and nearly proved fatal.
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