Publish to Newswire
Add an EventFrom the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature
Abortion Before Roe: Is the Past a Prologue for the Roberts-Alito Court?
Throughout history, women have had unplanned and unwanted pregnancies. And throughout history, women have found ways to terminate those pregnancies.
But what has not always been guaranteed is whether they can do so legally, with the medical care necessary to protect their health--or if they must seek illegal, "back-alley" abortions.
In the years just before abortion became legal in 1973, hospital wards were filled with women seeking abortions--who either had been injured or become sick obtaining an illegal abortion under dangerous conditions, or who had tried to induce the abortion themselves.
Desperate women used a number of dangerous means to terminate pregnancies. Some sought abortions from back-alley abortionists, with usually humiliating and sometimes deadly results.
Other women tried to induce abortions with homemade means--such as a bleach douche, or inserting sharp instruments into her cervix. This is why the now almost forgotten image of the wire coat hanger became the symbol of the abortion rights movement.
"In Chicago, at Cook Country Hospital, there were about 5,000 women a year coming in with injuries bleeding resulting to illegal abortions, mostly self-induced abortions," Leslie Reagan, the author of When Abortion Was a Crime, said in an interview. "They had an entire ward dedicated to taking care of people in that situation. Those wards pretty much closed up around the country once abortion was legalized."
Some women were able to obtain legal abortions by traveling out of the country--or, later, to the handful of states where anti-abortion laws had been repealed. This, of course, required money. "There was such a huge range of what was possible for anyone who felt the need for an abortion--from superb medical care in a hospital to doing it themselves at home with drugs or some kind of instruments, and people injured and dying," says Reagan.
More
http://counterpunch.org/schulte01202006.html
In the years just before abortion became legal in 1973, hospital wards were filled with women seeking abortions--who either had been injured or become sick obtaining an illegal abortion under dangerous conditions, or who had tried to induce the abortion themselves.
Desperate women used a number of dangerous means to terminate pregnancies. Some sought abortions from back-alley abortionists, with usually humiliating and sometimes deadly results.
Other women tried to induce abortions with homemade means--such as a bleach douche, or inserting sharp instruments into her cervix. This is why the now almost forgotten image of the wire coat hanger became the symbol of the abortion rights movement.
"In Chicago, at Cook Country Hospital, there were about 5,000 women a year coming in with injuries bleeding resulting to illegal abortions, mostly self-induced abortions," Leslie Reagan, the author of When Abortion Was a Crime, said in an interview. "They had an entire ward dedicated to taking care of people in that situation. Those wards pretty much closed up around the country once abortion was legalized."
Some women were able to obtain legal abortions by traveling out of the country--or, later, to the handful of states where anti-abortion laws had been repealed. This, of course, required money. "There was such a huge range of what was possible for anyone who felt the need for an abortion--from superb medical care in a hospital to doing it themselves at home with drugs or some kind of instruments, and people injured and dying," says Reagan.
More
http://counterpunch.org/schulte01202006.html
Add Your Comments
Comments
(Hide Comments)
Want to know what a country looks like with extremely strict anti-choice laws? I am sure the catholic diocese in Oakland who ran those dishonest BART ads and many of the nuts who will be here tomorrow - by request of the archdiocese of SF - to try and spread their contempt for women's rights would love to see abortion straight outlawed. Women and doctors off to jail.
Want to see a country with little to no birth control information? Religious fundamentalists who are anti-choice are often anti-contraception as well, just like the catholic Pope and evangelical George Bush.
Well, how about Romania for an example? It wasn't pretty.
Read on...
Romania
Because of panic over low birth rates, the 1957 statute permitting elective abortions was reversed in 1966 under Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Legislation set a prison term of one to five years for illegal abortions, and abortions were permitted only if a woman had already borne five children. In 1986, the law was tightened further to ban abortions for any female under age 45, unless her life was in danger.
Among the new measures were monthly monitoring of pregnant women and investigation of all spontaneous abortions. All forms of artificial birth control were prohibited.
Romania demonstrates Dr. Wendell Watters’ contention that nation-states, whatever their ideology, are prepared to take away women's right to abortion when they wish to increase their population.81
The horror wrought by this repressive policy was revealed upon the overthrow of Ceausescu in late 1989. It was discovered that the rate of abortion was actually higher than in any Western European country in which abortion was legal.56 Over 10,000 women died from illegal abortions and about 200,000 children were placed in orphanages.82 The Ceausescu regime had also forcibly returned thousands of unwanted babies to their parents. The wilful neglect of children by the state led to a predictable rise in infant mortality during the Ceausescu era.
On December 26, 1989, one day after defeating Ceausescu, the National Salvation Front repealed the draconian 1966 and 1986 decrees restricting abortion and contraception.83
Maternal mortality in Romania has decreased 317% since the abortion law was liberalized.38 The abortion rate is still high, however, since fears about the “dangers” of contraception still abound in this country. “Abortion has been the only alternative in the last 23 years. It's very difficult to get women to understand that it is healthier and safer to use contraception," said Dr. Borica Koo, head of the Romanian Family Planning Association.84
Want to see a country with little to no birth control information? Religious fundamentalists who are anti-choice are often anti-contraception as well, just like the catholic Pope and evangelical George Bush.
Well, how about Romania for an example? It wasn't pretty.
Read on...
Romania
Because of panic over low birth rates, the 1957 statute permitting elective abortions was reversed in 1966 under Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Legislation set a prison term of one to five years for illegal abortions, and abortions were permitted only if a woman had already borne five children. In 1986, the law was tightened further to ban abortions for any female under age 45, unless her life was in danger.
Among the new measures were monthly monitoring of pregnant women and investigation of all spontaneous abortions. All forms of artificial birth control were prohibited.
Romania demonstrates Dr. Wendell Watters’ contention that nation-states, whatever their ideology, are prepared to take away women's right to abortion when they wish to increase their population.81
The horror wrought by this repressive policy was revealed upon the overthrow of Ceausescu in late 1989. It was discovered that the rate of abortion was actually higher than in any Western European country in which abortion was legal.56 Over 10,000 women died from illegal abortions and about 200,000 children were placed in orphanages.82 The Ceausescu regime had also forcibly returned thousands of unwanted babies to their parents. The wilful neglect of children by the state led to a predictable rise in infant mortality during the Ceausescu era.
On December 26, 1989, one day after defeating Ceausescu, the National Salvation Front repealed the draconian 1966 and 1986 decrees restricting abortion and contraception.83
Maternal mortality in Romania has decreased 317% since the abortion law was liberalized.38 The abortion rate is still high, however, since fears about the “dangers” of contraception still abound in this country. “Abortion has been the only alternative in the last 23 years. It's very difficult to get women to understand that it is healthier and safer to use contraception," said Dr. Borica Koo, head of the Romanian Family Planning Association.84
For more information:
http://www.cbctrust.com/history_law_religi...
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!
Donate
$130.00 donated
in the past month
Get Involved
If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.
Publish
Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.
Topics
More
Search Indybay's Archives
Advanced Search
►
▼
IMC Network