Medicine: Thalidomide & Abortion

At least 20 women from half a dozen nations have made the pilgrimage to Stockholm since August in the hope that they, too,could get a legal abortion—as did TV Performer Sherry Finkbine of Phoenix, Ariz. (TIME. Aug. 10, Aug. 24), because she had taken thalidomide early in pregnancy. But the national Medical Board, which must pass on all such requests, seems in no mood to let Sweden get a reputation as an abortion mill for foreigners. It turned down the request of a Los Angeles schoolteacher who had sold all her possessions to raise the fare to Sweden. By last week, the board had approved only one more application—for a woman from West Germany.