ABSTRACT
The number of conscientious objectors has begun to increase, but more from concrete considerations than from any widespread shift in moral convictions: doctors and nurses who initially declared their willingness to perform abortions grow tired of being sucked into a vortex that rotates entirely around this single operation. ‘No births, no breast operations, not even a cyst. And as well no hopes for specialization and career opportunities: nothing but abortions, three hours a day, five days a week’ (quoted in La Repubblica, 29 January 1989). As well, those who perform abortions face the disapproval of the conscientious objectors (60-80 per cent of gynaecologists, and 80 per cent of hospital department heads). Doctors and nurses who lend assistance to women who abort are likely to meet the same discriminations to which the women themselves are exposed. To counter the decrease in the number of non-objecting doctors, the hospitals turn to younger doctors who are just out of medical school and on the search for their first job. The interruption of pregnancies is relegated to the lowest level of hospital activities, and deprived of the halo of nobility which has always surrounded the medical profession. A doctor who practises abortions is overwhelmed with tasks.
