Photo by Mark Pynas
Charles Hoffmeister
'I've never had any patients
come back and say,'Gee, I wish
I hadn't had this done.'
Worlds apart
"Abortion is a personal matter between a
woman and her physician."
"Life begins at conception."
"The most elementary freedom is the right
of choice."
"There's no such thing as a life not worthy
to be lived."
Worlds apart
And with abortion legislation pending in
the U S Congress, the war of words intens
ifies Legislators, attorneys, nurses,
ethicists, columnists, theologians — and
almost everyone who can talk — are joining
the tray
But it is physicians who perform, or refuse
to perform, more than one million abortions
done each year in the United States
In Springfield, the offices of Norm Gosch
and Charles Hoffmeister are 20 feet apart,
separated by blacktop and careful landscap
ing But when it comes to abortion, the two
family doctors are worlds apart
Norm Gosch f^forms between 40
and 50 abortions every month — a
needed and worthwhile service, he
says
Of the 30 patients he sees per day, two to
four have abortions, he says Most of his
abortion patients are from 18 to 25 years old,
he adds
He performs abortions only during the first
12 weeks of pregnancy, he says Gosch uses
the suction technique the fetus is sucked out
of the uterus, through a plastic tube and into
a glass container
In the late 1960s, Gosch worked for six
years at the University student health center
"At that time you had to write birth control
prescriptions under the authorization of an
outside physician because the student health
center didn't want to take responsibility for
physicians there prescribing pills to women
whose parents might be upset about it all
"Abortions were not available, of course, at
that time, and women that became pregnant
that didn't wish to be pregnant had to go
either to Mexico or to Japan You never knew
when you referred someone out to have an
abortion just what the circumstances might
be It was always sort of an uncomfortable
feeling not knowing what was going to hap
pen to your patient "
Bev Gosch, the doctor’s wife and office
manager, says she worked in a Lane County
birth control clinic where women often
reported they'd been to Mexico for abortions
"Just hearing their stories, of the terror at the
frightening conditions and the bad hygiene —
just so many things like that kind of changed
how I felt about having abortions here " i
Gosch charges $200 for an abortion, in
eluding three appointments before the abor
tion and a check-up two weeks after. Prices
for abortion range from $180 to $220
"It's a constantly changing profession, and
that's what keeps it so exciting You can do
things the way you did them five years ago,
but you're not doing them in the best way that
you can because things are changing so
rapidly And I feel good just being abreast of
what is current, what is new. and what is the
best way of doing things "
Do any of his patients feel guilty after they've
had an abortion? "I've never had any patients
come back to me and say, Gee, I wish I'd
never had this done,' in my whole eight years
of doing it I’ve had patients come back for
the two-week visit and say, Gee, I'm sort of
upset about this, yet I'd like some help in
resolving these conflicts ' " Norm says his
patients are sometimes referred to Planned
Parenthood for counseling
"What's really gratifying is to receive a
thank-you note from a patient saying that
they really appreciated the kind service, they
really appreciated the thoughtfulness and the
caring they felt in the office — and that's what
I've been working for all this time
“It makes you feel like you're operating a
needed and a worthwhile service, and doing
it well "
An unwanted pregnancy can be traumatic,
Norm says "Most of the women I see are not
married and not interested in marrying the
person who caused the pregnancy .’* Other
patients have career plans that would be
disprupted by a child. Norm says Other
patients are teenagers who can't be
adequate mothers; others are in their late 30s
and early 40s and don't want to have a child
who’ll be 20 when they're 60
“I think there s a right time and a wrong
time to have children and each person in their
life knows when that is," he says The Goschs
have four children "All children have a right
to be parented appropriately and to have
loving parents For the most part, the patients
I see are not married, they're not ready to be a
mother, have no desire of being a mother,
and I can't really see this would be
appropriate to require them to remain preg
nant under the circumstances ”
What about giving the child up for
adoption? "Statistically, women are keeping
their babies," Bev says “They don't adopt
them out. I’ve been to the homes where the
mother is keeping her baby I've seen what
t's like
"And it's so very self-serving for those
people who are wanting to adopt a baby to
ump on the right-to-life or anti-choice band
wagon,” she adds "They’re just meeting
heir own concerns."
Some pro-life activists are self-serving
when they discover they're pregnant, she
says "Abortion has been here It’s been
around since the time of Christ The bottom
line is that it is not unusual for women who
have been involved in anti-abortion activity to
come in for abortions, or women to bring their
own daughters in And they all say the same
thing, In my case, or in my daughter's case,
it's different.' ”
"It boils down to the fact that we re all sort
of human, you know," Norm says "We all
have human needs and human desires and
human problems — no matter what your
beliefs are They need to be worked out in the
best way they can under the circumstances ''
Most women having an abortion don't take
it lightly, he adds "For the most part they are
there because either their method failed or
they just failed to use a method."
"It seems reasonable that if you offer a
patient a vasectomy, and you offer to set their
leg when it’s broken, that you also should —
as a regular part of medical care — provide
abortions,” Bev says
"Depending," adds Norm, "on how the
physician feels about it morally "
When does human life begin? "Oh, that’s a
question that's bounced around a lot and I
think that's a matter of how you feel about it
personally," he says "There's a potential for
a viable fetus whenever a sperm and an egg
get together, and that occurs from concep
tion on So, potential life is possible from that
point"
Asked about Charles Hoffmeister, Norm
says, "As a fellow physician, he's a very
competent person and he's most enjoyable to
work with He is articulate, he's up to date and
does a good job medically We just differ on
our views regarding abortion "
Charles Hoffmeister refuses to do
abortions
But he speaks highly of his col
league, Norm Gosch For Hoffmeister, the
key issues in the abortion debate are when
life begins and when we are willing to take
life
"I was pro-abortion I felt it was legal and
God was just another area of reality. I never
did abortions, although had I been in the
situation I certainly would have.
"Early in the 1970s and I came to an un
derstanding that there is absolute truth, and
that Christianity was that truth My whole
thinking changed
"Even as a Christian I continued to be
pro-abortion, mostly from a sociological
standpoint. One, it was legal and, secondly,
there were situations that dictated it. I could
agree with abortion up to a certain point."
His views on abortion changed when his
wife Pam became pregnant
"What I rationalized, and what I would say
about life suddenly didn’t apply When she
was six-weeks pregnant, there was absolute
ly no question in my mind that that was life
"Most people who are pro-abortion don’t
want to discuss the question of when life
begins I think that’s the real issue We want
to talk around that issue and talk about the
social issues. In all biology circles, life really
begins when the egg and the sperm come
together — at that point all the genetic make
up that's going to be for each individual is
there, totally different than any other genetic
make-up that's ever come together.
"The evidence is overwhelming as to when
life begins. The real question is When are
you willing to take life?' and When do you say
it’s no longer acceptable to take life?'
"The surgeon general, C. Everett Koop,
asks the question, ’You have a newly-born,
full-term child Is it OK to kill that child?’
Currently, most people would say no ‘Then
you ask the question. Well, would you kill the
baby a day before? And if not then, would you
have done it the day before, the day before,
the day before?’ When do you decide that
isn't right and when do you decide that life is
of no value?
"From my position as a Christian — believ
ing life is sacred — I don't think there’s any
time you can take life
"If I didn't have that perspective of life
being sacred, and — coinciding with that — if
there were no such thing as absolute truth,
then the relative system we operate in would
really come to be acceptable Norm (Gosch)
and I have had discussions about this. His
feeling is he's making a decision based with
respect to the most social good: Which is
better, to have unwanted pregnancies, back
room illegal abortions, women sick and dy
ing, or doing it with the best medical
technique? If that's the only question, cer
tainly it's better to do it safely and under the
most sterile technique
"Without an understanding of absolute
truth and the sacredness of human life, I
could agree with that "
Adoption is better than abortion, Hoffmeis
ter says "There isn't any easy solution. When
a woman of younger age is pregnant and
doesn't want to be, she doesn't have any easy
option In a lot of situations you’re looking for
what's the easiest Unfortunately, because an
abortion is so easy to obtain and widespread,
they are presented as the easy answer, or
easiest answer
"But the ultimate question isn’t what's
easiest, it's a question of what's right."
Having a child is not convenient, says his
wife Pam “That word comes up a lot, 'con
Contlnued on Page 12
Photo by David Coray
Norm Gosch
From my position as a Christian
-1 don't think there's any time
you can take a life.'
J
J
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