-Just a week before her death, Myma Lorri Anne George was happy, healthy, and looking forward to the birth of her baby five months hence. Why, a few days later, she slipped into despondency and heavy drinking and demanded an abortion is not public knowledge. What is known is that she died from the same operation that killed her fetus.

The Prince George regional coroner's office is investigating the September 14 death, and has yet to decide how to proceed. The family of the 19-vear-old single woman from Telegraph Creek is demanding an inquest.

Among the questions an inquest would address are whether the woman, who said she'd been drinking heavily, was in any condition to give informed consent to the abortion - whether a discrepancy in dating her pregnancy (her physician thought she was 13 weeks along, her family said 16 weeks) resulted in her undergoing a procedure that could be dangerous that late in pregnancy; why, according to family reports, she was left to writhe in pain for two hours and then went into shock, while staff at Mills Memorial Hospital in Terrace tried for hours to contact her attending obstetrician (Dr. Gordon Boyd); why her condition was permitted to deteriorate to the point that she slipped into a coma; whether the standard of care she received was influenced by her being a native Indian; and whether mandatory cooling-off period between the request for and provision of an abortion might have averted her death (at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, to which she had been transferred) altogether.

Although maternal deaths as a complication of abortion are generally described as being very rare, pro-lifers have long argued that abortion hurts women. A 1978 World Health Organization study found that the morbidity rate for abortions after 13 weeks of pregnancy ranged from 9.9 to 22.9 per 100,000, depending upon the procedure used. Pro-lifers point out that these figures do not include suicides resulting from post-abortion trauma.

The risks of serious but non-fatal complications are greater, especially during the second trimester. These were addressed by New Jersey doctor Michael Bumhill during a lecture to the National Abortion Federation meeting in Chicago earlier this year. Among the complications listed were mechanical injuries, resulting in laceration or perforation of the uterus, cervix, bowel, ovary, Fallopian tube, or other parts of the genital tract; hemorrhage; severe infection; and endotoxic shock.

Dr. Burnhill said case studies over the past 15 years had shown that delay in treating complications had resulted in "unnecessary major surgery and/or deaths occurring."

Last year, a New York family won a $1.2-million suit against the Eastern Women's Center in Manhattan where their 13-year-old daughter died after an abortion she obtained without their knowledge.

She began choking and vomiting during the procedure, had a breathing tube inserted and was moved to a recovery room, and there, untended, had a heart attack. By the time the ambulance arrived, she was in a coma, and died in hospital three weeks later.

At least one observer believes that risks may be increased by some doctors' attitudes towards women who have undergone abortions. Betty Green, president of Vancouver Right to Life, notes that most doctors dislike performing abortions but feel they must provide them. And some end up resenting their patients. Others have "a superior atittude," dismissing their patients as unfit mothers and telling themselves that their offspring are better off aborted.

There is concern among the native Indian population that such policies are being directed towards them. And the issue is complicated by doctors routinely prescribing abortion in cases where the child is at risk of being born with fetal alcohol syndrome. In 1976, the Manitoba Metis Federation alleged racism in just such cases. As quoted by The Catholic Register, then vice-president Connie Eyolfson asked "Is the lack of social well-being' of the native people a legally valid reason for aborting us? If this is legally acceptable, then it is the ultimate discrimination, the continuation of the 'race-genocide' suffered by our forefathers."

In February of 1988, when the province of B.C. ceased funding abortions after the law that regulated them was struck down by the Supreme Court of Canada, Health and Welfare Canada promised to fill in the gap for native women. They would not fund abortions for others, however, said regional director Dr. Patrick Prestace, because "we're concerned with the health care of the native population, not non-natives."

Whether or not abortion represents peculiar threats to the native community, it was indisputably tragic for Myrna George. Her distraught family spent last week preparing for a memorial service, and refused all interviews, apart from their initial call for an inquest.

Meanwhile, Lower Mainland pro-lifers were once again preparing for a demonstration they hope will help prevent further anguish. On October 6, they will line the streets from Everywoman's Health Centre, by Vancouver General Hospital, past the Elizabeth Bagshaw Woman's Clinic to Shauhnessy Hospital. Simultaneous protests will be taking place in hundreds of communities across North America.