When Abortions Were Illegal

 BEFORE ROE v. WADE

From Coathangers and Knitting Needles

Do the math. Five major city hospitals in one city had 20 botched abortions in a day which means 100 failed illegal abortions in just one city in one day. Take the major cities: Boston, New York, Washington D.C., Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago… an estimated 800 botched abortions in these areas alone.

If lawmakers think they will stop abortion by outlawing it, they are hallucinating. From the beginning of time, women who wanted/needed abortion would find an abortionist or do it themselves. If any lawmaker is tempted to vote to limit abortion, please watch this film before you do. When Abortion was Illegal: Untold Stories https://vimeo.com/24924296

This 27-minute, 38-second Academy Award-nominated documentary combines personal testimonies of women who had illegal abortions, doctors, nurses, psychologists and researchers. It delves into the history of abortion limitation in the U.S. and why.

The film emphasizes that until the mid-1800s abortions were legal and available in the United States and if not approved at least accepted by both states and churches if it happened before quickening.

Beginning in 1847, the newly formed American Medical Association began campaigning to professionalize medicine by outlawing what it labelled quackery. Included in this ban were midwives and herbalists who had provided abortion and maternity care in their communities for centuries.

During the second half of the 19^th century, Victorian society began to condemn women seeking abortions as selfish, immoral and shirking the duties of motherhood, the film said, until it was impossible for a woman to get a safe abortion or birth control information.

Dr. Armstrong, a family physician, confirmed what I found from other doctors from the period about the number of botched abortions. He said, “I went to medical school in NYC in the 50s when abortions were illegal. Every day the city hospital that my medical school staffed would have 20 to 30 women coming in, infected and bleeding, dying from abortions they induced themselves. The coat hanger trick was used…”

Exact Statistics Are Impossible

No official national statistics for illegal abortions are available for obvious reasons. They are done in secret. There are only estimates. Dr. Armstrong’s hospital was just one of many in New York City. Other hospitals in other cities such as Philadelphia General kept 20 beds for women with botched abortions.

Do the math. Five major city hospitals with 20 botched abortions a day means 100 failed illegal abortions in just one city in one day. Take the major cities: Boston, New York, Washington D.C., Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago… an estimated 800 botched abortions in these areas alone.

If those numbers were for botched abortion how many abortions happened each day that did not fail?

The film did not go into statistics after Roe v. Wade, but the Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported some 51 million-plus abortions from 1971 to 2013. The case-fatality rate for known legal induced abortion for 1993 to 1997 was 0.6 deaths per 100,000 legal abortions, according to an in-depth CDC report on abortion.

If abortion becomes illegal again, women will once again seek the backrooms, the motels, the shacks, the coat hangers and knitting needles.

One statement in the film about the inevitability of abortion was spoken by a white-haired woman, well-dressed, sitting in a comfortable chair: “A woman who is unhappily pregnant will risk her life to stop that particular pregnancy and later in her life when conditions change will happily risk her life to have a baby.” A very realistic statement.

Life before Birth Control and Roe v. Wade

As a young woman in the sixties and early seventies, I knew that about half my friends had unwanted pregnancies. Those were the days before Eisenstadt v. Baird removed the prohibition of giving unmarried women birth control information.

Of my friends that admitted unwanted pregnancies, some had abortions, some shotgun marriages, most of which, but not all, were unsuccessful. Others disappeared for a few months for a variety of not-so-believable reasons. I wonder how many of my other friends didn’t share pregnancy information with me. Sociologically, we represented middle-class girls growing up in a very Republican Massachusetts town.

The woman, who said the desperation of a pregnant woman means she will find a way to abort, explained how she was married at 17. After giving birth to a sickly baby girl, her doctor told her another pregnancy would be fatal.

Three months later she was pregnant. The doctor lectured her: “Didn’t I tell you not to get pregnant?” She replied that he didn’t tell her how not to. Ignorance about reproduction was rampant.

Thanks to friends, she located a woman who lived in a shack to perform the abortion. She had to sell much of what she owned to raise the $50 fee. She felt she had no choice: the risk of an abortion death was less than the risk of dying and leaving her baby daughter without a mother.

The abortionist put a piece of slippery elm in her uterus and sent her home. She developed an infection and suffered great pain. Returning to the shack, the woman was upset to see her, but cleaned her up. Then she hugged her and asked, “Honey, did you think it was that easy to be a woman?” and told her never to come back. Despite the horror, she remembers the hug as kindness.

The personal stories in the film When Abortion was Illegal run the gamut about why women want abortions. One woman and her boyfriend were talking about getting married, having babies, even discussing names for those babies. However, when she told him she was pregnant, he asked whose baby it was. The relationship ended. She could not imagine with the mores of the time being an unwed mother. She used the phone book to find a sympathetic doctor. Many decades later, she still feels like a criminal. Women deserted by men was and is a common reason for abortion.

Another woman, who had had an abortion at an early age, found herself pregnant after being raped by an older man. She couldn’t face a second abortion. The first had been in a “dirty” motel room and was done by a “dirty” woman, according to the woman who had the abortion. She went to a home for unwed mothers, which had begun to flourish. (Florence Crittenden* and the Salvation Army operated these homes across the country during the 20^th century.)

The woman said that she made a mistake by seeing her baby before giving the child up. To pay off some of her expenses, she stayed at the home, working in the nursery among babies that weren’t hers. She said it was not right for a young woman to have to go through a pregnancy and then leave her baby behind.

Evelyn looks as if she stepped off the society pages of a major newspaper, her white hair pulled back and her blue eyes flashing. She described how after her own abortion she helped locate safe abortions for other women, even though she knew it was illegal. She felt the danger of going to prison was less than the risk of death to the pregnant woman.

The film depicts black-and-white sketches of Victorian women on their deathbeds with a man sitting next to each. Often women who were in danger of dying from an illegal abortion had to give a deathbed testimony against their husband, lover and/or the abortionist before they could receive medical treatment. Actresses read some of these deathbed statements. I can imagine the pain, the fear.

        “I, Maria, (last name not clear) believing I am about to die, make this ante mortem statement. I became acquainted with John Shockwell. I had sexual intercourse with him and in the month of May I noticed I was pregnant…”

        “I, Flora Alice Grimes, about to die, make this statement on the second day of July 1896. James Dunn, a retail merchant, gave me a packet of calamine. I took two doses.”

        “I, Loretta Parsons, am about to die…”

In the mid-20^th century, Terry, a researcher, reported that she found many physicians were supportive of abortion, feeling it should be made safe for women. They were afraid to do it themselves, partially from fear of censure or other punishment. Another fear was that if word got out that they would do abortions, they would be inundated with requests.

They were right. Terry talked about Dr. Curtis Boyd, (See Chapter 21) who began with a few abortions in 1965. He found himself getting referrals from all over the country, many from ministers. Over the next eight years he performed thousands of illegal procedures.

Dr. Boyd said, “I began to realize how difficult it was to obtain the service and how desperately women needed it and wanted it and to what they lengths they would go to obtain to regularly risking their lives… that didn’t matter. Women risked their lives every day to get an abortion somewhere in this country…I knew I could lose my license, go to prison.”

He spoke of the need for two-way trust. The women needed to trust him to provide a safe treatment and he needed to trust the women, many who came from great distances, to not go to the authorities.

For those that didn’t have a Dr. Boyd and others like him, a registered nurse, Mary, told of women coming in to the hospital with a “temperature of 105, bleeding, totally infected. We had some die in shock because they did not tell the truth.” They were afraid the information would be turned over to the police.

Who were those women? Mary said that often “it was just plain housewives that couldn’t afford to have another baby.”

A Dr. Paulsen talked about two girls who went to Tijuana; one came back and died, another came back and had to have a hysterectomy. “I was outraged at how women were being treated.” His anger was not just at the abortionist but at the men, be they boyfriends, casual lovers or husbands.

Dorothy Fadiman, who made the film, had her own abortion story. “When I was a college student, I became unintentionally pregnant. I had no savings, no committed partner and my family was 3,000 miles away. I could neither find nor afford a skilled provider. Abortion was illegal in California in 1962, so I paid $600 cash to a stranger, a person whose face I never saw. I was blindfolded throughout the procedure. Soon afterward, I began to hemorrhage and ended up on the intensive care ward of Stanford hospital with a fever of 105 and septicemia, a blood infection that had killed so many women who risked the back alleys or aborted themselves. I kept my story to myself and remained silent for thirty years.”

Awards

When Abortion was Illegal: Untold Stories won other prizes besides its Academy Awards nomination:

        Emmy, Academy of Television Arts & Sciences

        Gold Hugo, Chicago International Film Festival

        Gold Apple, National Educational Film/Video Festival

        Bronze, C. Columbus International Film/Video Festival

        Featured Selection, Seattle Human Rights Film Festival

Pot Calling Kettle Black

Watching Rubio talk about all the evils of Iran and the heroinism of the U.S. reminds me of a very bad movie with only part of the plot being told, yet the audience has heard the story so often they believe the story.

R: Iran can't have a nuclear weapon.

I: We signed an agreement. We had regular inspections. We were following the treaty, then Trump pulled out of it.

R: Iran wants to use nuclear power against its neighbors.

I: Khadafi and the Ukrainians gave up their nuclear ambitions leaving themselves unprotected. Why aren't the U.S. against North Korea, India, Israel and other countries who have nuclear power?

R: Groups like Hezbollah are allowed to flourish. Israel has to protect itself.

I: Iran has a right to protect itself, too. All countries do.

R: Iran has attacked its neighbors.

I: So has the U.S. So has Israel. Can you say Venezuela's leader being kidnapped? Can you say threats against Greenland and Cuba by the U.S.? Can you say unrealistic sanctions for decades against Cuba? How is that different?

R: For 47 years Iran has been against the U.S.

I: We weren't the one who helped overthrow our democratically elected Iranian government in 1953 and the Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh. You, the U.S. did. 

The U.S. didn't like that he wanted to nationalize the oil fields. That is not a reason to overthrow another government's government.

You supported the Shah's government and the oil companies at a cost to the Iranian people. The Shah's Savak secret police was deeply unpopular with the Iranian people for its arrests and torture, murder of people.

R: Iran tortured and murdered the Iranian people. 

I. How is that different from the U.S. ICE killing immigrants and imprisoning them without proper legal procedures? There are many reports of mistreatment of prisoners under ICE. The U.S. sent them to countries against court orders where they were mistreated.

R: Israel has fought against Iran.

I: Israel has killed over 72,000, men, women, children journalists, denied food and medical treatment to people. The U.S. supports Israel's genocide and unbelievable cruelty by denying them basic necessities.

I'm not saying Iran is a wonderful country. But here's some facts about it:

• One of the world's oldest civilizations
• 17th in size
• 17th in population
• Theocratic/authoritarian government
• Has diplomatic relationships with 165 countries
• Literacy rate 99% compared to 79% of Americans

All these facts makes Iran a formidable opponent. With the U.S. guilty of many of the same action that Iran has done, the U.S. is committing a lot of kettle black calling.

Free Write - the Photograph

 Prompt: She has a single photograph of him.

D-L's Free Write

Janey showed her granddaughter Samantha her single photo of him. He was dressed in his army uniform.

Meaux, France May 1919 and Charles Jackson were printed in faded letters on the back.

"I don't know if it was the same Charles Jackson that wrote my great grandmother Emily Wright or not. It would be a coincidence."

The teenager and her grandmother watched the crackling fire that warmed the room. The rain pounded on the glass door of the patio.

Samantha was the only one of Janey's three granddaughters who was interested in her hobby of finding bits and pieces of people who had lived long, long ago from letters, postcards and photos that she'd come across by accident.

"Where did you find the photo, Grammy?"

"At an antique shop on a shelf in the back. I recognized the name Charles Jackson from letters I'd found in mx great-grandmother's attic."

"Will Grampy let you go to the battlefield in Meaux?

"He'll fight me every cent of the way." She already had her tickets. She had to know more about the handsome soldier with the penetrating eyes.

Rick's Free Write

She has a single photograph of him. Faded. Well-worn. One corner torn. Fingerprints on the edges.

He was in uniform. Tall, proud, scared.

The photo was taken in front of the house. She remembers the neighbors calling out well-wishes. Except for one protestor, the girl who was against everything.

In the bottom corner of the photo, his dog, eager to be near, anxious.

It seemed like so little time they had together before he left.

Basic training. Then gunnery school. Then Special Ops, which she wasn’t supposed to know, but she did. Army Rangers. The guys who get dropped behind the lines to blow things up, kill people.

She had urged him not to enlist, begged him. But he only saw the adventure. And the money he didn’t have.

She watched the news every day. She checked the mail.

There was a raid. People died. ‘Enemy’ soldiers the government said but she knew they always lied. Children, the journalists claimed, and showed photos of small backpacks and little shoes. Women. Old people.

Like her.

She knew in her heart her only son was not coming home.

Julia's Free Write

Once Upon a time…

Don't all ancient stories start that way?

In any case it was a long, long time ago as she is no longer in the prime of her youth, never mind even in middle age.

1st grade and a new school, 8th grade and yet another, ninth and another,11th and yet again.

Then it was the first year of university: one year there, the next year here, the third there, the 4th year here and the 5th there yet again.

Of course she fell in love, just about as regularly as she changed schools.

The wild adoration of one year was forgotten over the summer.

She mostly remembers them with fondness, only the first French man with less.

Names, at least first names, have stuck as well.

Then she married, was widowed young but had two boys so continued in a fairly male world.

Of all the boyfriends she has no pictures, only of those in her mind: of one she has only one photograph, and that a class picture.

It's enough.

Rick Adams is an aviation journalist and publisher of www.aviationvoices.com, a weekly newsletter reporting the airline industry  top stories . He is the author of The Robot in the Simulator. AI in Aviation Training.  

Visit D-L.'s website  https://dlnelsonwriter.com, She is the author of 15 fiction and three non fiction books. Her 300 Unsung Women, bios of women who battled gender limitations, can be purchased  at https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/300-unsung-women-d-l-nelson/1147305797?ean=9798990385504 

Visit Julia's blog. She has written and taken photos and loves syncing up with friends.  Her blog can be found: https://viewsfromeverywhere.blogspot.com/ 

Note: The quote is from Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin 

Being an Exile

 I don't dare enter the United States, not because I gave up my American nationality, but because of what I post on social media. 

I think back as a kid to Firestone Theater on Tuesday night television and watching the play, Man Without a Country about Philip Nolan based on an Atlantic short story. Nolan was sentenced to stay as a prisoner at sea after saying he never wanted to hear, sea or read of America again. Bedtime was immediately after the program.

The reason I gave up my nationality was that I wanted to live in Switzerland the rest of my life. Because of U.S. FATCA laws making it impossible for me to have a normal financial life almost anywhere the world, I had little choice.

Prior to Trump, as an ex-American I could enter the U.S. although I did have to swear I never helped the Nazis in WWII, although I was still a toddler at the end and I'd never kidnapped a child either.

We've known people personally going on business who have been detained and read more news story about other detentions.

Pictures of my beloved Boston thrill me. I will never look at the ducklings again. I've loved them since my kindergarten teacher read Make Way for Ducklings. I still see lots of Facebook photos with the ducks dressed in costumes.

I would like to walk Boston Common and gaze at the State House Dome knowing my grandfather had done some of the engineering on its repairs. I also remember lobbying for the ERA on my lunch hour there. The memories stay in my head, not my eyes.

Friday nights were family nights in Harvard Square: dinner, bookstore, street musicians, a great start to the weekend.

Rockport and Bearskin Neck. Half my given name Lane comes from that area.

Each day listening to the news from several different countries, I feel if I'm watching a very bad movie acted by amateurs that is throwing not just my birth country into chaos but the world. 

Coat Hangars & Knitting Needles - James Friedel

 "I'm Madder Than Hell"

James Friedl’s Story is the fourth story in Motherless, a film showing the negative consequences of "coercive reproductive health policies." Anyone watching the film should be reminded why we can't return to the pre-Roe v. Wade days despite many legislators, usually men, trying. 

A photo taken of James Friedl about the time his mother, Ruth Irene, died of an abortion, shows a skinny little boy wearing a sailor hat and almost dwarfed by a toy sail boat.

He was told his mother died from food poisoning. The shock of losing her made him “unlovable,” he said.

He hid. He hid in closets, hiding from the pain. When he wasn’t hiding he followed his father everywhere, never even letting the man go to the bathroom alone.

Only as an adult, as a Marine waiting to be shipped out from San Diego, did James learn the truth from his Aunt Alice. She happened to be in the city at the same time and she told him what really occurred.

After James’s sister had been born, his mother was told she shouldn’t have any more children. This was in Denver in 1929, but she found herself pregnant. She kept the secret from her husband and instead turned to Alice, a pharmacist married to a doctor. It is not clear whether Alice and Ruth were sisters or sisters-in-law but there’s a photo of the two women arm-in-arm.

Alice told Ruth that an abortion by her husband was out of the question. He could lose his license. Their whole community in Idaho would be hurt if they lost their only doctor.

James isn’t sure whether Alice provided the ergot that killed his mother on 21 August 1929. Ergot is a fungus that can be used for migraines and for bringing on uterine contractions. Ruth overdosed.

Decades later James said, “Mad? Damned right I am mad, and I am madder than hell. Why do we have to go through this? Look what I lost…Totally unnecessary. Same as if they shot her on the street.” 

***

About the Film*: Motherless was produced and directed by three women:

• Barbara Attie, an Emmy-nominated filmmaker
• Janet Goldwater, a Philadelphia-based producer and director focused on amplifying women's voices and
• Diane Pontius who also produced I still Love You about her father's dementia.

The film won four awards

•       Cine Golden Eagle, 1993
•       Silver Apple, National Educational Film and Video Festival, 1993
•       Honors, International Health and Medical Film Festival, 1994            
•        Religious Coalition for Reproductive Rights, Sarah W. Boote Founders Award, 1994

*From Coat Hangers and Knitting Needles

You Don't Know You're a Slave

This is directed more to salaried people then hourly although it doesn't mean that abuse doesn't exist at all employee levels. 

Meryl Streep is once again appearing in the movie Prada. When I saw the original movie years ago I found her character at best disgusting. The person I was with admired her and didn't like the "weak boyfriend" whom I admired.

The boy friend was a decent human being. Streep's character wasn't. The friend who admired the Streep character is doing the work once assigned to several people without reward. At least, unlike earlier slaves, she isn't whipped.

It was only a movie, but how many working situations duplicate the story line?

Another friend is now doing the work of four employees that were with her company when she started and have since left with no salary adjustment for herself after she took on their responsibilities.

They, like many other salaried employees today, are modern slaves of the 21st century. They might be able to change jobs unlike formal slaves but conditions can be the same from company to company.

Employers are stealing from their employees

Both friends are being abused by their bosses, not sexually or physically, but these companies are stealing from their employees' time and lives. It is time and lives that people sell to employers in return for salaries and benefits.

When a job, under normal conditions can't be completed within the required hours over and over again without recompense, a robbery of time and life have been taken place.

People are told that to give their all to the company is the way to get ahead. No matter the sacrifices an employee makes, the higher ups would not hesitate a mini second if their bonus is in jeopardy to let employees go. Especially in large corporations. No matter how profitable the company might be, the benefits are not filtered down to most employees anywhere proportionate to the effort the employee puts in. The only thing that counts is the stock price to top managers and their bonuses.

There are times when extra work for a special project makes sense for the good of the corporation. It does not mean that the extra hours should be the norm day after day, week after week, month after month, etc. Those making the effort should be rewarded proportionally to their effort. How many are?

Note: Disney 's CEO makes $45 million, but is letting 1000 serfs er ...employees go. 

What about those with professional careers?

What about the doctors (especially residents), lawyers, teachers,  nurses, journalists, etc. who give their employer so many hours in addition to what their contract requires. For many, they love the work and the knowledge they gain. They have studied long and hard to be good at what they do. 

No problem if the pay matches the hours. A doctor won't stop in the middle of an operation because his hours are up. The same with a lawyer preparing a case, or a teacher a lesson plan.

Their lives generally are even more deserving of awards especially teachers and nurses. Some are poorly paid.

Sold a bill of goods

A friend did a study of women's magazines during WWII. Many of the articles were about how wonderful it was for women to work. Yes, their labor was needed for the war effort, but the moment the war was over the articles were about the joys for women staying home. The population was being manipulated to fulfill the perceived financial needs of society. In this case it was at the expense of the women who wanted to work, but the women who wanted to be wives and mothers were happy. 

Qualified women in professional jobs couldn't get jobs no matter their qualifications. Now they can often at lower pay. One of my bosses said he preferred to hire women. They work harder for less money. 

At another company women were hired at lower levels with the same credentials as men. When a male boss left, a woman would be promoted sometimes at half the pay. Since it was a raise for her she took it and worked harder. 

Note: hourly workers have another set of problems.

What is scary is how many people give up so much for what those paychecks can buy.

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WORKERS DAY!

Liar, liar, pants on fire

My husband is looking for my friend Eulalie.

What a surprise. Eulalie turns into his daughter from the States.

What to give my husband for his 75th birthday? The only thing he still wants is an antique crossbow and I've looked for one for four years with no luck.

I'll explain: we live in Southern France and Switzerland. His daughter and family live in the Southwest U.S. Because of our politics and what has happened to friends and colleagues entering the U.S., he doesn't dare enter the U.S. under Trump. Between an active job, two kids, a house and husband, she has little time to travel.

Still it was worth a try. I offered to give her an airline ticket to Europe as his birthday present. She loved the idea and found very cheap tickets of herself and her husband. Rather than stay in my Nest, the studio I had bought for my retirement before reconnecting with my husband, she booked into a hotel. The owners are our friends. They were in on the secret.

His family decided to fly into Barcelona and train up to Perpignan. No matter their destination, I still needed to get him to pick them up.

"Eulalie, remember her? She was here before, she loved Cassoulet in Carcassonne. Well, we need to pick her up in Perpignan, she's coming back." Meanwhile Gigi was repairing the skylight in the Nest and we wanted it done before Eulalie came. The Nest had to be cleaned before Eulalie came. Oh did I lie, although I did want the skylight fixed.

My husband asked, "Do you think my daughter would get a UNT T-shirt and ship it to my daughter when she come next month? UNT is where his grandson goes and his granddaughter will go next fall. I assured him that she probably would. His worry that his daughter would know my daughter's Boston address was put to rest.

My clever daughter-in-law didn't dare email me but she had a friend email me saying that Eulalie's internet was down but gave me arrival time and place.

We made the Perpignan train station on the day of arrival ahead of the train and stood outside arrivals. My husband wasn't sure he would recognize Eulalie about whom I had been saying I was looking forward to seeing. More lies fell from my lips.

His daughter was the first one off the train.

"That looks like my daughter," he said. And seconds later the two of them were hugging. It was a week of talks, walks, hugs, meals, sightseeing, a week long birthday present. 

I just wish that I had her put a bow in her hair.

It's okay to lie for a birthday surprise.