WHAT EVERY WOMAN NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT ABORTION

Arnstein's tone is that of a kindly but firm grandmother -- the sort to whom a desperate teenager might confide an unwanted pregnancy when she'd balk at going to Mom or Dad. Her referrals -- to Planned Parenthood and the National Clergy Counseling Service -- are the standard, sensible ones; and her warnings against do-it-yourself gynecology and the commercial profit-making abortion mills can't be repeated too often. Most of the specifics here on the four major procedures (D & C, vacuum aspiration, salting out and hysterotomy) can be found in any basic guide (cf. Abortion: A Woman's Guide, KR, p. 498, authored by Planned Parenthood of NYC). Arnstein is particularly solicitous of the special problems of the unemancipated minor who might be given a runaround by the medical profession, and her advice on how to handle the emotional complications of a terminated pregnancy is levelheaded if minimal. She's not equipped to deal with a spiritual maelstrom and has the good sense to know it, so this will be principally useful to those who require practical help and an eneouraging word -- not psychological solace.