The doctor in A Private Matter, a 1992 movie about Sherri Finkbine Chessen’s (1932-) fight for a therapeutic abortion after taking Thalidomide, said his Arizona hospital performed around 300 abortions a year during the time when abortion was illegal. The alleged reasons were to save the life of the mother.
The number shocked me: three hundred, one hospital, one city.
Doctors found a way around the law to help women claiming that the procedure would save the life of the mother. The women needed to see a psychiatrist, certifying she wasn’t stable. I had friends who would take their daughters to a psychologist just in case they needed an abortion in the future. They would have a track record of psychological problems to increase the chances of being given a legal abortion.
More than one doctor, who went against the law, expressed the reason it would save the women from the back alley or a knitting needle which led to many women’s death, so the concept of saving the woman’s life was not a total falsehood.
Thalidomide, Too Dangerous for Pregnant Women
The German company Grünenthal Group developed Thalidomide and began marketing under the brand Contergan in 1957. The drug was said to relieve insomnia, anxiety and gastritis.
It was also effective against morning sickness. Because it was impossible to overdose, it was declared safe. Distillers, a United Kingdom company, manufactured and sold it under the name Distaval.
Reports of nerve damage and malformed babies surfaced between 1959 and 1961, all of which were ignored by the companies making the drugs. According to estimates, some 10,000 babies were born deformed worldwide. Half are reported to have died.
Two doctors, a Scot Leslie Florence and an American Frances Kelsey, of the Food and Drug Administration were first to sound the alarm, Florence for the damage and Kelsey because he was uncomfortable with companies involved not reporting potential nerve damage.
The drug was withdrawn in 1961.
Relying on a TV movie is not necessarily the most authoritative source for a book like this. If the happy dinner scenes and backyard BBQs in the movie might not be exact, the damage from the drug and the difficulty Chessen had in getting the abortion were real. The major points in the movie were backed up by articles in the newspapers and Chessen’s own testimony in documentaries such as From Danger to Dignity https://vimeo.com/24810848.
Miss Sherri Caught in a Trap
Sherri Finkbine was a busy mom with four children, the wife of a school teacher and the star of the local Romper Room on KPAZ, Channel 21 where she was Miss Sherri to pre-school viewers and guests in the studio.
She had trouble sleeping.
Her husband, a teacher, while he was leading a school trip to England and the continent, came across the drug and brought the pills back to the U.S., where it was unavailable. He wanted to help his wife get her needed sleep. Sherri took 36 of the tablets. At the time she was happily pregnant with her fifth child.
In July 1962, Sherri became aware of the problems with the drug when she read about the effects in the newspaper. The headline read, “Woman Doctor Curbs Newborn Tragedies.”
Her doctor recommended a therapeutic abortion after conferring with other doctors in the U.S. and Europe. She was unsure, but photos of deformed babies convinced her.
At the time, abortion was illegal in all the states unless it was necessary to save the woman’s life. Her doctor had to diagnose her as a potential suicide and then Chessen had to convince a psychiatrist of her instability, so he could perform the abortion legally at the Good Samaritan Hospital. She succeeded in convincing the psychiatrist and the abortion was scheduled.
Not wanting other women to take the drug if they came across it, she talked to the local newspaper the Arizona Republic several days before her scheduled operation. Reporter Julian DeVries broke the story 23 July 1962 under the headline, “Pill may cost Woman Her Baby.”
Sherri was supposed to be anonymous. It didn’t happen.
The next day her doctor called to say the operation had been cancelled. Sherri, thought she was unknown, but the news went out on the Associated Press wire. Calls had been made to the hospital from all over the world including threats and it caved to the pressure. One person tried to make a citizen’s arrest.
She was fired. Any woman getting an abortion was obviously unfit to stand before children after giving them milk and cookies and say: “God is great, God is good. Let us thank him for our food. Amen.” Even more she certainly couldn’t teach them what was right to do and what was wrong.
On 30 July, a judge decided that any doctor who performed the procedure could be charged criminally. When Sherri asked for immunity from prosecution if she obtained an abortion in Arizona, the Arizona Superior Court dismissed the case. Judge Yale McFate said there was no legal controversy and denied he had the authority to decide.
She searched for a doctor in and outside the U.S. to legally proceed. Japan, which did allow abortions, refused her a visa.
Sweden allowed it: she and her husband flew there. After the abortion on 18 August 1962, the doctors reported that the fetus was deformed, lacking legs and an arm.
On the couple’s return to the U.S., the press mobbed them as they walked down the plane’s stairs. “I don’t want to get back at anyone,” she said at the time. “I just want to do what is best in our case.”
There were death threats. The FBI was called in. The officers had to walk her children to school because there had been threats against the children’s safety. One person threatened to cut off the children’s arms and legs.
Life after The Abortion
Sherri loved children. She had two more children before divorcing her husband. Six children belonged to her second husband creating a large mixed family that outdid The Brady Bunch. She has adored grandchildren.
Her professional life has continued.
· She had done voice overs for cartoons.
· September-December 1970, she had a one-hour variety show on in Phoenix, AZ
She authored children’s books to address the issues of gun violence, sexual abuse, and bullying:
· The Gorp’s Gift
· The Gorp’s Secret
· The Gorp’s Dream
Sherri is still alive as of this writing (November 2017).
The steps Chessen had to go through to prevent the birth of a deformed child that had it been able to survive would have had an incredibly limited life were horrifying. The couple knew what they were capable of doing and not doing in caring for a disabled child.
What right did the state have to add to their pain?
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