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	MY BODY
Abortion— The Way It Was Before Legalization by Phyllis Metal

I FIND UTAH'S STAND ON CRIMINALIZING ABORTION VERY SURPRISING in view of my experiences with a Salt Lake abortionist when I was l7. Guam and Utah! What a loving pair!

I was l7 and when I got back to the ranch after graduating from boarding school and high school I missed my period. And over-protected as my growing up years were in girl's boarding schools, I still knew what it meant to be "in trouble". . .in the ranch small town community where I grew up. The older women would tighten their lips and give each other knowing glances as they said "she's in trouble". And when nausea followed the missed period I knew I was. . .what they meant. . .by being "in trouble". I tried jumping off the barn roof and riding my horse as fast as I could up on the mesa. . .but the nausea continued day and night.

I had to take a trip through Yellowstone with my family and pretended I was car sick all the way. I could not imagine telling my Victorian mother the truth. So I wrote a letter to my mother's best friend's son. . .they had come every summer before this to my ranch for a couple of weeks in the summer. . .and he had always said. . ."if you are ever in trouble, Phyl, just call on me your big brother."

So I did. He immediately sent me some pills which it took awhile to get as we only went to town for the mail every two weeks. The pills did not work and I was frantic. He then wrote me about Salt Lake's famous abortionist, Dr. Moormeister, who had practiced his art in Salt Lake under the nose of, one would presume, the Mormon Church for 20 years. He had never lost a case. He was called all over the U.S. to perform abortions for those who could afford it. He was trained in Germany. I went to school with his daughter, Peggy, and we all knew what her father did. . .and I never dreamed that I would need him.

"We have to hurry" Big Brother said, "for he will not take you past three months. AND YOU MUST TELL YOUR PARENTS!!! I have told mine and it is fine for you to come here to Salt Lake and stay with us". Sooooo Mother, I said, I have something to tell you and I blurted it out. She was hoping it was the young man they had chosen for me to marry. . .but it was not. (The night before graduation in the Cathedral two of the monitors who were attending the University asked five of us seniors if we wanted to celebrate our graduation with blind dates from the University. We jumped at the thrill and sneaked down the fire escape after lights out. We all went to an empty dormitory. . .it was Depression times. . .and bottles of whiskey, without labels, were brought out and we all got drunk. . .the first time for all of us girls. I vaguely remember getting up and going to the bathroom and something white ran down my leg. Next morning before daylight we snuck back into the dormitory and were up in time for graduation, with hangovers. Then back to the ranch.)

So my mother and I went to Salt Lake with the hundred dollars Dr. Moormeister charged and stayed at our friends' lovely home. My "big brother" took me to Dr. Moormeister's office for the abortion. I went into a clean operating room with a nurse in attendance, had an anesthetic and when it was over I waited for four hours for the cramps to stop. I went home free of nausea and in great spirits. The next day I returned to have the vaginal packing removed. That was that. It was over.

After a few days my mother and I returned to the ranch. My "big brother" and I are still friends and that abortion is one of our many secrets.. .we are each other's oldest friend. In the years that followed I referred several friends to Dr. Moormeister and they had good clean abortions. . .no complications. . .and went on to marriage and a family. What a blessing he was to young women "in trouble." We all knew the horror stories of back alley abortions in that era. I am now 74 so you can figure out when it was. But why has the Mormon church back-tracked from that humane position they took then? That is the puzzle to me. Do they now deny this chapter in their history ever existed or is it that nobody will talk? Well, I am talking!!!