What abortions were like pre Roe vs Wade

[lizziesmom]

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?

This ridiculous position totally overlooks medical decisions involving abortions. Sometimes there are health related issues for mom/baby that married couples are forced to make. Those decisions should be private, not mandated by government. Doctors should not be afraid to offer medical advice and perform abortions.

[Sobeknofret]

I remember reading an interview with Leonard Nimoy once, where he said that he became pro-choice in the sixties when his neighbor died on his front lawn, in his arms, after having an illegal abortion. The poor woman basically bled to death before the EMS could get there. Horrible, horrible times. :cry:

[debrand]

Thank you for posting this article. I'm torn as to whether I should post it on my facebook page or not. Many of my family members are pretty conservative

I've found that many anti-choicers are ultimately against a woman having the freedom to have sex without consequences. Preventing many abortions is easy. Doing things like providing women with free birth control, better sex education(not abstinence) and providing social services for poor parents would prevent many abortions. However, most anti-choicers do not want to provide these services. I've gotten into discussions with people who say that if the woman did not want to risk a pregnancy, she shouldn't have sex. I think some prolifers are more angry the woman had sex without suffering any reprucussions than they are that a fetus is killed

Perhaps some of you know the answer to this. I've heard that the signs that Prolife groups hold up when they protest are actually photos of stillborn babies. Is that true?

[2xx1xy1JD]

Here's an excerpt from a 1956 medical journal article about "Lysol-Induced Criminal Abortion". The first case described is just horrifying.

http://journals.lww.com/greenjournal/Ci ... on.18.aspx

[laura oz]

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

HTH

You are the ish! i have the tech skills of a rock :lol: My hat is off to you & thanks!

ETA I got the copy part done, but don't know how to find it in order to paste it in my status. Oh, well. Maybe I can commit some of the article to memory and use that. Having my brain stuck in 1995 is hard in 2013 :lol:

[Jana814]

I remember reading an interview with Leonard Nimoy once, where he said that he became pro-choice in the sixties when his neighbor died on his front lawn, in his arms, after having an illegal abortion. The poor woman basically bled to death before the EMS could get there. Horrible, horrible times. :cry:

Interesting!! Thanks for sharing!

[Minerva]

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.

You mean painful surgery isn't something you do for fun? And here I was going to ask for a stomach biopsy for my birthday...

[PennySycamore]

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."

I've been thinking the same thing about reviving the work of the Jane collective. I'll try to post some links to documents from their archives about how it worked later after I get back from some errands.

[bananacat]

Maybe I'm cynical, but believe most people who claim to be pro-life really do know about the horror of illegal abortion. Except to them, it's a feature and not a bug. They're glad to see women they disapprove of dying in horrific ways as punishment. It really comes to light in countries where abortion is already illegal and women die because they can't even get a medically-indicated abortion. This is why I can never refer to them as pro-life, and have to roll my eyes really hard when they describe themselves that way. I'll believe they care about life when they actually show it, and not a second before.

[PennySycamore]

Some links to the work of the Jane Collective:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Collective

http://www.cwluherstory.org/Jane-Abortion-Service/

http://www.cwluherstory.org/Articles-Media-about-Jane/

http://www.cwluherstory.org/The-Jane-Bust/

http://www.cwluherstory.org/Jane-Documents/

http://www.cwluherstory.org/Jane-Stories/

http://www.cwluherstory.org/Jane-Stories/

http://www.cwluherstory.org/Jane-on-Video/

http://www.cwluherstory.org/Jane-in-Print/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jane-Col ... 9866380282

[Minerva]

Maybe I'm cynical, but believe most people who claim to be pro-life really do know about the horror of illegal abortion. Except to them, it's a feature and not a bug. They're glad to see women they disapprove of dying in horrific ways as punishment. It really comes to light in countries where abortion is already illegal and women die because they can't even get a medically-indicated abortion. This is why I can never refer to them as pro-life, and have to roll my eyes really hard when they describe themselves that way. I'll believe they care about life when they actually show it, and not a second before.

Wouldn't surprise me if they thought the horrors of illegal abortion were an elaborate fabrication. Most of the anti-choice people I know are abnormally gullible and literally don't know how to check facts. If you told them something was a lie, they'd believe you.

[E Street Fan]

Wouldn't surprise me if they thought the horrors of illegal abortion were an elaborate fabrication. Most of the anti-choice people I know are abnormally gullible and literally don't know how to check facts. If you told them something was a lie, they'd believe you.

ITA. Almost all the anti-choice/far-right Christians I've known consider intellectual pursuits (including reading) to be a waste of time and education to be a non-necessity (if not a liability). That and their innate gullibility makes them tremendously impressionable. (IME, they also tend to be into get-rich-quick schemes. I knew one AoG man who was heavily into MLM.)

[alchemy]

Maybe I'm cynical, but believe most people who claim to be pro-life really do know about the horror of illegal abortion. Except to them, it's a feature and not a bug. They're glad to see women they disapprove of dying in horrific ways as punishment. It really comes to light in countries where abortion is already illegal and women die because they can't even get a medically-indicated abortion. This is why I can never refer to them as pro-life, and have to roll my eyes really hard when they describe themselves that way. I'll believe they care about life when they actually show it, and not a second before.

I've seen this in a forced birther former friend of mine. His grandmother died from a botched back alley abortion. Although well aware of the horror she must have endured he's openly stated he has no sympathy for her and only laments that evil murdering grandmother deprived him of an uncle.

[Jecca]

You are the ish! i have the tech skills of a rock :lol: My hat is off to you & thanks!

ETA I got the copy part done, but don't know how to find it in order to paste it in my status. Oh, well. Maybe I can commit some of the article to memory and use that. Having my brain stuck in 1995 is hard in 2013 :lol:

If you copy the link from the address bar then right click in your status box you should be able to select paste.

Or PM me and I'll add you on FB then you can share my evilness!!

[lilah]

What I suspect is that it has a lot to do with privilege. If you were rich you could afford to fly to another country or bribe a doctor. If you were poor your options were much more limited.

I highly recommend 'The Girl Who Went Away" by Anne Fessler which was about young women who were shipped off to these expectant mother homes and were in some cases basically treated like prisoners, then once they had their baby it was often taken away from them before they could see or hold the baby, were often mistreated by the nurses and doctors and then they were coerced into putting the baby put up for adoption and never saw them again.

[FreeJosie]

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.

I remember my grandmother talking about the quinine mixture being used in the 1950s.

[FreeJosie]

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?

Exactly. I once worked with a married woman who had two kids and aborted a third pregnancy because she and her husband were struggling financially with the family that they already had.

[Ruby Slippers]

Perhaps some of you know the answer to this. I've heard that the signs that Prolife groups hold up when they protest are actually photos of stillborn babies. Is that true?

You're close. The one you are likely thinking of is called "Malachi" and is really hideous. It's "famous" in that it is like, the definitive anti-choice poster trying to make it seem that all abortions are late term and really vicious. (graphic description warning here-->) But it is clear that that particular fetus died in utero because the skin is gray. If it was a late term abortion, it was done THE NORMAL WAY, BY STOPPING THE FETAL HEART WITH DIGOXIN or KCl.

Some of those images-- the ones that look well-lit and ethereal with black backgrounds-- are actually (and ironically) photos of aborted fetuses arranged in a photo shoot.

Most of the signs just misrepresent the fetal age.

[heidi]

I wish that all of the focus (and money) on the legality of abortions would instead be funneled into preventing women from having to have an abortion in the first place. Comprehensive sexual education. Free and better access to birth control. Research into more effective birth control. An utter societal shift away from a rape culture. More support for single mothers. The protection of maternal rights.

[RainbowSky]

About 9yrs ago, I researched a LOT about Jane. It really interested me.

[alchemy]

What I suspect is that it has a lot to do with privilege. If you were rich you could afford to fly to another country or bribe a doctor. If you were poor your options were much more limited.

I highly recommend 'The Girl Who Went Away" by Anne Fessler which was about young women who were shipped off to these expectant mother homes and were in some cases basically treated like prisoners, then once they had their baby it was often taken away from them before they could see or hold the baby, were often mistreated by the nurses and doctors and then they were coerced into putting the baby put up for adoption and never saw them again.

The bolded was portrayed in The Magdalene Sisters film. The shame, abuse, and dehumanizing treatment those poor young women experienced is something I can see some forced birthers today being perfectly okay with.

[salex]

I've gotten into discussions with people who say that if the woman did not want to risk a pregnancy, she shouldn't have sex. I think some prolifers are more angry the woman had sex without suffering any reprucussions than they are that a fetus is killed

The poor little baby is easier marketing, but I have NEVER seen an open comments section of any article on line that didn't immediately go toward those women keeping their knees together and stop having sex unless they want babies. The attack on contraception (availability and just the whole "it's evil" line of bs) goes along these lines as well.

Eve was supposed to be cursed with big headed babies, damn it, and contraceptives and abortion keep her from suffering that curse. :naughty:

[crazyforkate]

The bolded was portrayed in The Magdalene Sisters film. The shame, abuse, and dehumanizing treatment those poor young women experienced is something I can see some forced birthers today being perfectly okay with.

Happened to my aunt in the late 1960's - I don't know if she went to an official "home" or was just put under the supervision of trusted clergy, but she was definitely exiled from her family. My mother notes that had my grandparents known about the pregnancy earlier, they almost definitely would have dipped into their savings or sold jewelry or something to "send her to Sweden", which happened to a lot of young women in North America at the time. I don't know what my aunt would have chosen herself - but it's interesting to think how many times this story would repeat itself under a ban. And in many cases that would probably be one of the better possible scenarios...

There's another book on the topic of banished unwed mothers called "Gone to an Aunt's", which I think is specifically about Canadian women, but it's worth a read too.

[laura oz]

If you copy the link from the address bar then right click in your status box you should be able to select paste.

Or PM me and I'll add you on FB then you can share my evilness!!

I got it to work! check your pm's Yay! New friends :dance:

[eohiken]

There's another book on the topic of banished unwed mothers called "Gone to an Aunt's", which I think is specifically about Canadian women, but it's worth a read too.

On that subject, there's a movie called New Waterford Girl. It's about a girl desperate to leave her rural Nova Scotian town, so she fakes a pregnancy so she can, "go to an Aunt's."