Abortion Methods Rife in Tehran

Abortion is one of the issues that officials have always tended to ignore. The general notion that our society is Islamic and, therefore, Islamic values would immune people against vice is simplistic. The number of referrals to (downtown) Nasser Khosrow black market in search of abortion medications is alarmingly high. We can neither turn our back on the clients and banish them from the society on the grounds that they have committed an act of immorality, nor ignore legal stipulations with regard to ban on abortion. The most acceptable option is promoting education. We must educate all social classes on how to prevent pregnancy. Instead of pretending that no 15-16 year old girl is going to Nasser Khosrow in search of abortion medication, we better educate them on how to prevent abortion. We must not be afraid that by making such educations public, our society would be labeled corrupt. The number of referrals to Nasser Khosrow is already high enough to raise the alarm.

The first half of 1990s was the heyday of agents of illegal abortions. There were hidden places in Tehran that carried out abortions on, at least, three women in Tehran per day. The hidden figures doing this were not necessarily obstetricians. In many instances, the agents were medical students, nurses, midwives, and quacks. The clients of these hidden figures were as unknown as themselves too and they were mainly girls and women who could give no explanation for their illegal pregnancies and took action for aborting their child as soon as the early manifestations of pregnancy were perceived. However, a small amount of them were married women who were forced to do curettage as a result of unwanted pregnancies. Since legal abortion was forbidden at official hospitals, they were forced to do it with the help of hidden agents. Although some obstetricians aborted women at their offices, they did it mostly for the patients with whom they were intimate. Since even the specialists were wary of legal consequences of abortion, they did it at a high price, which encouraged the clients to resort to illegal rings. Another reason that caused women to prefer the complications of an illegal abortion to the consequences of an unwanted child was the high speed of abortion. Apart from married women that sought illegal abortion due to lacking enough money to do it legally, most clients were women who were afraid of their illegal relationship to be made public, let alone it leading to the birth of a child. Those who were implicated in illegal abortion observed a high degree of secrecy and the number of legal cases arranged for them are few. Most of them were not busted by the police. The clients referred to them at the time of rush hour so as to arouse less suspicion and none of them saw other clients. Even if they saw each other, nobody knew what the other guy was there for. They were told to keep their secret even from the janitor or secretary of the office. The abortion took a quarter of an hour and clients stayed at the office for one hour after the operation until the effects of anesthesia were gone. Therefore, one can daresay that during 1990s there were many of such illegal places doing abortion across Tehran, especially in central and southern parts where density of population provided a good cover for all kinds of delinquencies and criminal behavior. However, during late 1990s, the number of referrals to such places dropped, not due to a reduction in unwanted pregnancies, since the rate of social immorality was soaring, but as a result of a new phenomenon that pushed illegal abortion into oblivion.

The black market of medicines at Nasser Khosrow Avenue is not as prosperous as it was 10-15 years ago, when the government was short of funds to import needed medications. However, since the second half of 1990s and after removing obstacles to import of medicines and measures taken by Ministry of Health and Medical Education, the black market at Nasser Khosrow lost luster.

When you go to Nasser Khosrow for the first time it is hard to have the trust of those who are dealing there. But when it's done you can get valuable information from them. However, when you go to governmental officials joyfully to relay the information to them, they tell you with a wry grin that they already knew all you had to tell them.

Medicines usually enter the country in the form of ampoules or suppositories from Pakistan border under the names 'prostaglandin' and 'prostrating'. They are made by an American company in India and come through Pakistan border.

Ampoules are less expensive. They are sold for 50,000 rails a pair in Pakistan or India, but the rate in Tehran is about 80,000 rials. This is the wholesale price. For end user they may cost 200,000-700,000 rials.

The ampoules must be used in pairs. The best way, apparently, is infusion through an IV line. They can be injected in muscle and vein. Each ampoule is one milliliter and they expire in 2004. Tablets are better than ampoules in that they cause better contractions, but they are more expensive and most clients buy ampoules. The time for an ampoule to be effective varies and its takes 3-12 hours before a fetus is aborted.

Average monthly sales amount to 100-200 ampoules. Of course, this figure is only related to those who come in person. The number of phone calls reaches as high as 500 per month.
All clients come with a piece of paper. Even the specialists avoid of writing a prescription to shun legal prosecution.

There are Belgian ampoules too. They cost 300,000-450,000 rials apiece and most people prefer the Indian ones, which are less costly.

Most clients hail from Tehran, but there are people coming from other big cities like Isfahan, Mashhad, Qom, and Rasht...

The client's age from 14-15 to 30 years and most of them are young ageing 20-25 years old? The singles are more wary, they rapidly buy the medicine and go, while the married ones often come with their husbands.

The price has shot up. They say the main factory in India is selling at a higher price. It is not difficult for ampoule dealers to cross the border, but if the cargo is busted, they would face a fine of up to 2,000,000-5,000,000 rials.

Sometimes, intermediaries from pharmacies come here and purchase several boxes at a time. Abortion is one of the issues that officials have always tended to ignore. The general notion that our society is Islamic and, therefore, Islamic values would immune people against vice is simplistic. The number of referrals to Nasser Khosrow black market in search of abortion medications is alarmingly high. We can neither turn our back on the clients and banish them from the society on the grounds that they have committed an act of immorality, nor ignore legal stipulations with regard to ban on abortion. The most acceptable option is promoting education. We must educate all social classes on how to prevent pregnancy. Instead of pretending that no 15-16 year old girl is going to Nasser Khosrow in search of abortion medication, we better educate them on how to prevent abortion. We must not be afraid that by making such educations public, our society would be labeled corrupt. The number of referrals to Nasser Khosrow is already high enough to raise the alarm.