Creating and Controlling a Medical Market: Abortion in Los Angeles after Liberalization

This paper is drawn from a larger study of physicians in Los Angeles who were heavily involved with abortion immediately after it was liberalized in 1967. I look at the 12 physicians who owned andtor operated abortion facilities and who employed other physicians. These physician entrepreneurs dominated the emerging market for abortions. I describe their perception of medical care as an economic commodity, their efforts to mass produce abortions through dominance over hospitals; their efforts to control price competition; their efforts to maintain group solidarity, and the success of their efforts. I also discuss the implications of these findings for the study of other aspects of health care services.