What abortions were like pre Roe vs Wade

[browngrl]

I found this article written by an older gynaecologist. He had to deal with the sequelae of illegal abortions in the days before they were legal. An interesting point of view.

www.nytimes.com/2008/06/03/health/views ... .html?_r=0

[Lillybee]

My mom's mom, the grandmother that I never got to meet died from an illegal abortion.

[SpeakNow]

That article is wonderful.

[pirate]

I can't imagine the pain of those things. I have trouble with even Pap smears. Those women must have been so brave. Desperate and brave.

[miffy]

My mums cousin used to work what she called the 'death room' at the department of births, deaths & marriages. She said there was a large amount of women, particularly in the 1940s, who had died as a result of an illegal abortion.

I wish pro-lifers would understand that nobody wants to have an abortion, its not some kind of secular or non fundamentalist Christian form of fun. They way to reduce the amount of through developing better methods of birth control & educating people about safe sex.

[Miss M]

My Grandmother drank a mixture of quinine and turpentine in an effort to abort prior to marrying my Grandfather, it worked, but it almost killed her too.

[Just_Jane]

I cannot imagine the desperation one must feel in order to take on those risks. That is why I am pro-choice. I hope I never have to make that choice but I want those that do to be able to have an abortion in a clean and safe location with trained medical staff. I also want better sex education and birth control education and access within schools and communities.

That was a good editorial and I read it twice.

[doggie]

It does not really matter. I don't think a lot of people think abortion really happened before VW. they think they would be stopping abortions these people are so clueless and don't really care. if they make abortions illegal that will make them happy and they will feel like they stopped abortions and a club upside the head will never change their minds.

[redcurls]

I wish people were more honest about the dangerous reality of pre RvW abortions. It would really change up the nature of the abortion debate in the US. My 90 year old grandmother only had 2 children. One time in conversation, she mentioned to me that 'old-timey women had their own ways of birth control, don't you worry.' I need to ask her exactly what these methods were, bc I have always wondered if those included abortion.

[crazyforkate]

I've heard that a big part of the upswing in anti-abortion efforts lately is because many people (including most of those currently practicing medicine/working in politics) were not really exposed to the pre-Roe world, so they never saw the true horror illegal abortion could cause. Those who advocate for the banning of abortion are completely unaware of what such a world would be like - and therefore make up whatever bullshit they want about it.

[uber frau]

I've heard that a big part of the upswing in anti-abortion efforts lately is because many people (including most of those currently practicing medicine/working in politics) were not really exposed to the pre-Roe world, so they never saw the true horror illegal abortion could cause. Those who advocate for the banning of abortion are completely unaware of what such a world would be like - and therefore make up whatever bullshit they want about it.

I think some honestly do not care. There are plenty of ppl who believe that outlawing abortion will mean that most women won't get one. They also believe that those who are willing to go to seek one out despite their illegality must be morally deficient and therefore deserving of a horrible fate.

[laura oz]

I loved the article. I wanted to share it on facebook to let my friends and family read this man's perspective, but sharing it on FB wasn't an option. Twitter, linkdin, etc... was. Conservatives seem to just say they want to deny coverage and access to birth control to prevent pregnancy, and that banning abortion will force people to stop having sex due to the possible result. Ancient Egypt had recipes to end a pregnancy and even used crocodile dung to prevent pregnancy. As the article states, even Ancient Greek women got abortions. When will they understand that human nature is what it is? No amount of punishment or shaming is going to stop a basic primary instinct to mate. Why do we have to be ruled by a government that could give fuck all about the problems with Social Security, global warming, our economy, that any nut job can get their hands on a firearm, but wants to stamp property of US GOV in our wombs?

[Jecca]

An excellent compliation of experiences from Australian women between 1930 - 1980. Well worth the read if you can get hold of it.

http://books.google.com.au/books/about/ ... 97vrDVN58C

[Jecca]

Another recommended read:

http://books.google.com.au/books?id=mBR ... &q&f=false

[Jecca]

I loved the article. I wanted to share it on facebook to let my friends and family read this man's perspective, but sharing it on FB wasn't an option. Twitter, linkdin, etc... was.

I managed to share it on FB by just cutting and pasting the link into the 'update status' box.

HTH

[meda]

My grandmother was a nurse from the 1920's through the 1960's. She told my mother some of the awful things she had seen when women tried to end a pregnancy. My grandmother was an extremely devout woman, almost excessively so, who really disapproved of "fooling around", but even she was realistic enough about what women went through at the time so that pretty much the only thing she ever told my mother about sex was that if mom ever "got in trouble", to come to her and she would make sure my mom went to someone safe.

My mother never even understood what she meant until a friend of hers in college needed an abortion.

[Jana814]

I once saw a documentary about a doctor who performed abortions. He said a main reason why he started was when he was an intern in Medical School he saw several women who died from doing an abortion & vowed if they ever became legal he would perform them for free.

[OnceModestTwiceShy]

You know, every day it's getting more and more likely that we will have to revive the Jane Collective. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Collective

"The Jane Collective or Jane, officially known as the Abortion Counseling Service of Women’s Liberation, was an underground abortion service which operated in Chicago, Illinois from 1969 to 1973. The collective was started by a group of women in an effort to address the increasing number of unsafe abortions being performed by untrained persons that often had no medical experience at all. Since illegal abortions were not only dangerous but very expensive, the founding members of the collective believed that they could provide women with safer and more affordable access to abortions. During the years which Jane operated, the collective performed more than 11,000 abortions in Chicago.[1] The collective disbanded after Roe v. Wade made abortion legal throughout the United States in 1973."

[wtylcf]

I loved the article. I wanted to share it on facebook to let my friends and family read this man's perspective, but sharing it on FB wasn't an option. Twitter, linkdin, etc... was. Conservatives seem to just say they want to deny coverage and access to birth control to prevent pregnancy, and that banning abortion will force people to stop having sex due to the possible result. Ancient Egypt had recipes to end a pregnancy and even used crocodile dung to prevent pregnancy. As the article states, even Ancient Greek women got abortions. When will they understand that human nature is what it is? No amount of punishment or shaming is going to stop a basic primary instinct to mate. Why do we have to be ruled by a government that could give fuck all about the problems with Social Security, global warming, our economy, that any nut job can get their hands on a firearm, but wants to stamp property of US GOV in our wombs?

The article doesn't mention that the other socially acceptable alternative in ancient Greece was infant exposure. There are instances in Greek myth of infants left outside to be exposed, who were adopted into loving families, and are later identified by the tokens left with the infant; for example, the story off Daphnis and Chloe. No doubt these kinds of stories eased the guilt and sadness of the parents who left their infants to die. Perhaps they hadn't died-perhaps they were adopted by a kind shepherd and his wife and grew up to have a good life and get married, just like in the folktale...

The article was a punch in the gut, to read...the nurse's story at the end was especially horrifying. This is certainly the reason that access to safe, legal abortion is so necessary.

[AtroposHeart]

What a stomach turning article. It reminds us how desperate a woman in an unwanted pregnancy must be and we must fight hard to never go back to the dark ages again. Seriously, abortion will never go away, never. You could bomb all the Planned Parenthood and woman's health clinics in the world, but that will still not stop it.

Never underestimate a person in a desperate situation.

[noni alabaster]

I love John Irving's work. I recommend The Cider House Rules to anyone with an interest in coming-of-age novels, and the descriptions of illegal abortions in that book are horrifying.

Irving's grandfather was an OB-GYN at Boston-Lying-In Hospital (please forgive my spelling, as I've been up since 5am), and Irving used many of his notes and records while writing this book.

The movie depiction of that novel is good, but you must read the book to really get what the writer meant. I know, the book is always better than the movie.

[Avalondaughter]

I think some honestly do not care. There are plenty of ppl who believe that outlawing abortion will mean that most women won't get one. They also believe that those who are willing to go to seek one out despite their illegality must be morally deficient and therefore deserving of a horrible fate.

There is a crazy fundie blog I read a few times where the blogger is so rabidly anti-choice that she openly states that if a woman dies from an abortion she deserves it for trying to murder her baby. I think many of her ilk feel that way, but just don't dare say it out loud.

[Peas n carrots]

Wow that is horrifying. I could never imagine being so desperate to end a pregnancy to go to a back street butcher or use knitting needles on myself. There had to have been some very very good reasons to seek an abortion, and no one should ever be driven to those extremes due to lack of access to safe abortions.

I'm truly frightened with the spate of anti-choice legislation what is going to happen in the coming years.

[fundiefan]

The people who believe overturning Roe v Wade will end abortion are the same people who believe 'returning' the US to Christianity will solve all our problems. These people created a past of their imagination with no basis in reality. Since they can't create their Utopia in the here and now they put it in the past as something to 'return' to.

[Miggy]

I still get annoyed by the anti-choice brigade who claim that abortions wouldn't be necessary if we waited to have sex until we were married. Why is it so hard to convince people that married people don't always want to carry pregnancy to term?