Abortion-Rights Advocate Karman Dies At Age 84

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 21 May 2008 - 9:00 PDT

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Psychologist and abortion-rights advocate Harvey Karman -- who worked to make abortions affordable, safe and accessible in the decades before Roe v. Wade -- died of a stroke on May 6 at age 84 at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara, Calif., the Los Angeles Times reports.

According to the Times, Karman became interested in abortion in the 1950s while conducting research as a graduate student at the University of California-Los Angeles on the emotional aspects of the procedure. He established an abortion referral service while the procedure was banned in California and eventually began performing abortions. He later spent two-and-a-half years in prison for performing illegal abortions.

Karman also developed the cannula, a soft, flexible tube used in first-trimester abortions. The device, which Karmen never patented, was widely adopted in the U.S. and other countries and was later used in diagnosing uterine cancer. Philip Darney -- chief of gynecology and obstetrics at San Francisco General Hospital who worked with Karman -- said that because the cannula is inexpensive and easy to sterilize and reuse, it "dramatically reduced health care costs in treating uterine bleeding."

Karman had several critics who disapproved of his efforts to use a device called the "super coil" to conduct second-trimester abortions. The device caused serious complications, including hemorrhage and infection. Carol Downer, who co-founded feminist women's health clinics in Southern California in the 1970s, said that Karman "engaged in some very irresponsible experimentation on women's bodies" when he used the super coil on about 12 women in Philadelphia in 1972, an incident later investigated by CDC. Darney said the super coil was a "bad idea" but does not "offset the importance" of Karman's other contributions to women's health.

During his career, Karman also helped women obtain abortions in Mexico and traveled to Bangladesh to perform abortions for rape survivors and train physicians on how to use the cannula. In addition, Karman advocated for women's rights and access to safe abortions in India and China. Vicki Saporta, president of the National Abortion Federation, added that Karman "is responsible for saving the lives of countless women throughout the world through" the cannula.

According to Downer, Karman was a "real change agent" in the abortion-rights movement before Roe. Malcom Potts -- a professor of family planning, maternal health and population at the University of California-Berkley who worked with Karmen in Bangladesh -- said, "Harvey Karmen did more for safe abortion around the world than practically any other person in the world" (Woo, Los Angeles Times, 5/18).

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