 Straightened-out wire clothes hangers have been used to perform unsafe and/or illegal abortions (frequently self-induced) by inserting the wire through the cervix and into the uterus, in order to cause the uterus to expel its contents.This life-threatening method poses severe risks to the person on whom it is performed.At pro-choice protests, wire clothes hangers have been used as symbols of the danger of criminalizing elective abortion.