Roe vs Wade: 39 years later

Yesterday marked the 39th anniversary of Roe v Wade.  It went quietly unnoticed by many.  For those of us who grew up in a pre-Roe era, it didn’t go quite as quietly.  Vintage women all knew someone or several someones with a horrible abortion story that happened before January 22, 1973.

There was Robin, the girl I went to high school with who got an illegal abortion  from  some butcher over in Elkton, of all places.  She ended up in the hospital with serious complications and the story made the local paper.  It didn’t give Robin’s name but somehow it leaked out.  It wasn’t hard to figure out who was missing and in the hospital either.  Arrests were made.

Then there were the 3-4 young professional women I knew who got abortions, testing the nearly legal procedure in Washington, D.C.  The procedure was expensive and multi-stepped.  It involved lawyers, psychiatrists and doctors.  As I recall the entire cost was around $1000 in the early 70’s.  Those were big bucks in those days.

The women I knew back then stood to lose their jobs and their standing in the community.   If they lost their jobs, they lost their health care and means to support themselves.  Society was mean-spirited about out-of-wedlock pregnancy in those days.  Today, it has changed somewhat.  However, underneath all the charitable good works is still a judgemental scorn that just doesn’t quite reach the surface by many people who would have you believe otherwise.

Most people feel that the basic right to abortion is safe.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Yes, abortion is established law.  However, it is one court case away from being overturned also.  Should that happen the right to abortion would be decided at the state level.  Most states have been quietly whittling away at rights ad have substituted  legislation that  makes abortion illegal.  Such is the case in Virginia.  If one local militant anti-abortion politician has his way, a personhood law will become part of Virginia jurisprudence, making Virginia one of the most restrictive states in the nation.

The most telling thing about the recent wars on abortion is that the war is also on contraception.  All over the country there is legislation to  defund Planned Parenthood and other means of distribution of family planning materials such as mandated by Title X.    The concept that access to contraception is made more difficult and that the  right to abortion is  being challenged at the same time simply baffles the mind.  To any logical person, the best way to prevent the need for abortion is to prevent unintended, unwanted pregnancy.  Not in today’s political climate!

It is time to ask who or what institution is behind this absurd political phenomena.  It makes no sense to limit both birth control and contraception.  Most people are smart enough to understand this simple concept.  It is time for people who feel that they are capable of making the correct morally appropriate decisions for themselves, without government interference, to vote these politicians, who would stick their nose in the most personal of decisions,  out of office.   Many voters are in denial that these basic rights could cease to exist.