In a panel discussion the 1st speaker reiterated the experience at King's College London where Cu7 or Dalkon Shield IUDs given to 242 women immediately after vacuum aspiration abortion resulted in slightly fewer postabortion complications than in 718 women not given IUDs. The other 2 discussants reviewed their own series of 291 women aborted in 1975 in Lyons. 40% were under 25 compared with 57% of maternity patients; 28% were nulliparas and 35% multiparas; and 60% had never used contraception, compared with 75% of maternity patients. 2 had been sterilized. 9 were true contraceptive failures, but 12 pregnancies were due to errors such as taking pills only after intercourse, putting pills in the vagina, or giving them to their husbands. Of 106 pregnancies after stopping contraception, 27 were on doctor's advice without an alternative prescription. 90% of the abortion patients left with contraception prescriptions yet only 46% returned for follow-up in 1 week and 25% in 3 months. Discussing ambivalence between contraception and abortion, the female author observed that women's personality can only develop in maternity, that some women consider birth control unnatural or castrating. Catholic morality considers contraception and abortion equally evil. Not only is the mode of action of an IUD indistinguishable from early abortion, but statistics show that 2 early abortions per year are no more dangerous than the thromboembolic risk alone of the pill.