Posted on May 7, 2022
Doctors share ‘horror show’ stories from before Roe v Wade – and fears for future
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Carole Joffe still remembers the despair in the doctors’ voices and faces when they talked about the women.
The women – or often, girls – were patients, all rushed to emergency rooms in different parts of the country, some claiming to be miscarrying, others concocting back stories – but many severely, sometimes fatally, injured by illegal or self-administered abortion attempts in the years before the 1973 Roe v Wade decision.
The horrific experiences of women pre-Roe have returned to the fore after the revelation this week that the Supreme Court is considering striking down the decision that had protected Americans’ right to seek terminations for nearly 50 years – and raised the question of whether women and girls are set to return to the dark days of secret, dangerous and often fatal procedures.
The women – or often, girls – were patients, all rushed to emergency rooms in different parts of the country, some claiming to be miscarrying, others concocting back stories – but many severely, sometimes fatally, injured by illegal or self-administered abortion attempts in the years before the 1973 Roe v Wade decision.
The horrific experiences of women pre-Roe have returned to the fore after the revelation this week that the Supreme Court is considering striking down the decision that had protected Americans’ right to seek terminations for nearly 50 years – and raised the question of whether women and girls are set to return to the dark days of secret, dangerous and often fatal procedures.
Doctors share ‘horror show’ stories from before Roe v Wade – and fears for future
Posted from independent.co.uk
Abortion
Medical
Health
Stories
Posted 2 y ago
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My own personal experience on this matter:
Why I support a woman’s right to chose and legal abortions.
In 1956 a young girl got impregnated. The man who did this was her uncle, on her mother’s side of the family. He had been molesting her for 3 years at this time. She had tried to talk to her mother about this before, but was told she was imagining the whole thing.
When she realized something was wrong, she went to the school nurse. The nurse informed her she was pregnant. The nurse also informed the girl’s mother.
When the girl got home that day, her mother whipped her and called her terrible names, all the time insisting she, the girl, must have been the one that initiated the sex. The mother insisted her brother would never do such a thing. She then kicked the girl out of the house. She was not to return with a bastard child.
This young girl found a friend whose parents would allow her to stay for awhile. They were not informed of the girl’s condition. After a couple of weeks, the girl and her friends concocted a plan. Everyone knew an abortion could be had below the border, so this young girl and a couple of friends drove down to Tijuana. She got her abortion.
On the drive home, that very sad young lady bled to death in the back seat of the car.
She was 15 years old.
She was also my cousin and best friend.
Why I support a woman’s right to chose and legal abortions.
In 1956 a young girl got impregnated. The man who did this was her uncle, on her mother’s side of the family. He had been molesting her for 3 years at this time. She had tried to talk to her mother about this before, but was told she was imagining the whole thing.
When she realized something was wrong, she went to the school nurse. The nurse informed her she was pregnant. The nurse also informed the girl’s mother.
When the girl got home that day, her mother whipped her and called her terrible names, all the time insisting she, the girl, must have been the one that initiated the sex. The mother insisted her brother would never do such a thing. She then kicked the girl out of the house. She was not to return with a bastard child.
This young girl found a friend whose parents would allow her to stay for awhile. They were not informed of the girl’s condition. After a couple of weeks, the girl and her friends concocted a plan. Everyone knew an abortion could be had below the border, so this young girl and a couple of friends drove down to Tijuana. She got her abortion.
On the drive home, that very sad young lady bled to death in the back seat of the car.
She was 15 years old.
She was also my cousin and best friend.
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."“My biggest worry is [actually] several,” she tells The Independent, including “a public health crisis; thousands of women will have babies that they are not prepared to take care of; they don’t have the resources; they don’t want to be pregnant; some of them will have various healthcare conditions that make pregnancy not desirable.”
She adds: “We’re going to have children who are unwanted.”
To avoid this, both she and Dr Boyd believe abortion rights activists will create a strong network – this time not underground – to facilitate travel for people with unwanted pregnancies and help with expenses.
The movement “has been very actively planning: How do we get women from so-called ‘hostile’ states to ‘haven’ states?” Prof Joffe tells The Independent.
Even then, however, it will be impossible to help everyone, which circles back to the possibility of risky black market procedures, medical tragedies and death.
“For me, it’s not primarily about the abortion; that’s important, of course,” Dr Boyd tells The Independent, but “the real thing that drives [me] is that ... it’s just an issue which robs women’s rightful place in society [and] equality.”
Women, he says, will be relegated “clearly, heavily, into a second-class-citizen position.
“I just find it really hard to comprehend that, at this stage in our social evolution, we could so blatantly put women back in this position” because it takes “the decision-making away from them, [the ability] to control their lives, make decisions that are best for them, the families they have, the families they hope to have.?
Decades after Roe v Wade, he says, he’d hoped abortion would have been fully integrated into mainstream healthcare, though social, religious and even medical pushback has presented what this week have turned out to be exponentially increasing obstacles.
“I didn’t think this would be the case,” he says. “I thought it would be over long ago.”"
..."“My biggest worry is [actually] several,” she tells The Independent, including “a public health crisis; thousands of women will have babies that they are not prepared to take care of; they don’t have the resources; they don’t want to be pregnant; some of them will have various healthcare conditions that make pregnancy not desirable.”
She adds: “We’re going to have children who are unwanted.”
To avoid this, both she and Dr Boyd believe abortion rights activists will create a strong network – this time not underground – to facilitate travel for people with unwanted pregnancies and help with expenses.
The movement “has been very actively planning: How do we get women from so-called ‘hostile’ states to ‘haven’ states?” Prof Joffe tells The Independent.
Even then, however, it will be impossible to help everyone, which circles back to the possibility of risky black market procedures, medical tragedies and death.
“For me, it’s not primarily about the abortion; that’s important, of course,” Dr Boyd tells The Independent, but “the real thing that drives [me] is that ... it’s just an issue which robs women’s rightful place in society [and] equality.”
Women, he says, will be relegated “clearly, heavily, into a second-class-citizen position.
“I just find it really hard to comprehend that, at this stage in our social evolution, we could so blatantly put women back in this position” because it takes “the decision-making away from them, [the ability] to control their lives, make decisions that are best for them, the families they have, the families they hope to have.?
Decades after Roe v Wade, he says, he’d hoped abortion would have been fully integrated into mainstream healthcare, though social, religious and even medical pushback has presented what this week have turned out to be exponentially increasing obstacles.
“I didn’t think this would be the case,” he says. “I thought it would be over long ago.”"
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