'Now tell us what happened on March third of this year.'
'Well, I had discovered that I was pregnant, so I made an appointment with Dr. Fletcher for an... an abortion.'
'Something,' Czernek said, 'that millions of Americans do every year with no complications.' Valerie nodded. 'You drove me out there and helped me fill out what I thought was an ordinary consent form for the op- eration.'
'What time was this?' he asked.
'About seven in the evening.'
'Basically,' he said, 'after hours.'
'Yes.'
'Did the hospital appear fully staffed at that hour?'
'I don't know. It seemed pretty empty there.'
'Go on.'
Valerie looked at the jurors. They appeared to be listening with interest and without prejudice. 'I was led into an operat-ing room and got undressed.'
'Was this a big operating room?' Ron asked. 'With several surgeons and lots of equipment and lights?'
'No,' she replied, events of the evening unfolding in her memory. 'It was small, more like an examination room. Just the table and stirrups and some cabinets and a sink. The only equipment was the thing the nurse wheeled in.' At Czernek's request, she described as much as she remembered of its white exterior, the video monitor and switches.
'Did you know what this device was for?'
Valerie looked at Evelyn. 'Dr. Fletcher told me that it was for a suction abortion.'
'Objection!' Johnson stood forcefully and walked to the bench. 'Your Honor,' he whispered, 'use of the word abortion to refer to transoption will be prejudicial to my clients' case.' Judge Lyang looked down at the man. 'Does this really have any bearing?'
'Immense bearing, Your Honor.'
She shrugged. 'Sustained.'
Czernek asked his question again. Valerie answered uneas-ily. 'She told me that it was a suction device. I was given a local anesthetic, which didn't do much good. Then she turned the machine on, and it started to make these hissing and suck-ing sounds.'
Ron turned around as if in thought. 'At any time,' he asked, 'were you aware that anything was out of the ordinary?'
'Well...' She frowned. 'I had never seen an abortion before, so I had nothing to compare it to. High school sex education classes and college women's studies both seemed to ignore the actual medical procedure-'
'Please, just answer my question.'
She frowned again, this time at Ron. 'I'd never seen an abor-tion, so, no, I didn't think anything was wrong. I figured I knew it might hurt, so when she inserted the tube, the pain was no real surprise, I guess.'
'Was there any talk between Dr. Fletcher and her nurse that might have aroused your suspicions?'
'I can't remember any.'
'So as far as you were concerned,' he said, facing the jury, 'Dr. Fletcher had performed an abortion by medically approved means.'
'Yes.'
'Did you later find out that this was not the case?'
