[Vocabulary] rusty knife

[maiabulela]

Mark SAID: "LOOK, ARE YOU ASKING ME TO ARRANGE AN ABORTION FOR ETHEL?"

FRANK SAID, "WELL, YES, I AM."

MARK SAID, "DON'T BE A FOOL." HE SAID, "I WILL NOT PUT HER ON THE KITCHEN TABLE WITH A RUSTY KNIFE,"

THE NARRATOR GOES ON TO SAY "WHICH IS THE WAY THEY WERE BEING DONE IN THOSE DAYS." (HE MEANT THE WAY OF ABORTION)

I can't get it at all! Does he really means that to abort her he will put her on kitchen table and hurt her with rusty knife?

What does that mean?

thanks

 

[emsr2d2]

Mark SAID: "LOOK, ARE YOU ASKING ME TO ARRANGE AN ABORTION FOR ETHEL?"

FRANK SAID, "WELL, YES, I AM."

MARK SAID, "DON'T BE A FOOL." HE SAID, "I WILL NOT PUT HER ON THE KITCHEN TABLE WITH A RUSTY KNIFE,"

THE NARRATOR GOES ON TO SAY "WHICH IS THE WAY THEY WERE BEING DONE IN THOSE DAYS." (HE MEANT THE WAY OF ABORTION)

I can't get it at all! Does he really means that to abort her he will put her on kitchen table and hurt her with rusty knife?

What does that mean?

thanks

He is saying that he will not perform an abortion on Ethel by asking her to lie on the kitchen table while he actually does the abortion using a rusty knife.

I assume you know what rusty means?

Remember that he is not "aborting her (Ethel)" - he would be performing an abortion on Ethel, or aborting her unborn child.

 

[Barb_D]

Abortion was not always legal. Without a clean, safe place to do this, abortions were performed in unsanitary places with non-sterile instruments by people who were not doctors.