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 deaths, so the concept of saving the woman’s life was not a total falsehood.
The doctor in A Private Matter ,a 1992 movie about Sherri Finkbine Chessen’s) 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 woman 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/safe 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 deaths, 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 it 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 Scott, Leslie Florence
and an American, Frances Kelsey
of the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration—were first to sound the alarm. Florence was concerned about the
damage and Kelsey because she was uncomfortable with the involved companies not
mentioning potential nerve damage.
The drug was withdrawn
in 1961.
A TV movie is not necessarily the most authoritative source for a book like this. Nonetheless, though 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 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 Chessen 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,
Phoenix, Arizona, where she was Miss Sherri to pre-school viewers and guests in
the studio.
She had trouble sleeping.
Her husband,
a teacher, while leading a school trip to England
and the European continent,
came across the drug Distaval
and brought the pills back to the U.S., where it was unavailable. He wanted to help his wife get her needed
sleep. Chessen took 36 of the tablets. At the time she was happily pregnant
with her fifth child.
In July
1962, Chessen 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. Chessen
was unsure at first, because
she wanted the child, 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.
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.”
Chessen was supposed to be anonymous.
It didn’t happen.
The next
day her doctor called to say the operation had been cancelled. Chessen 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.
Chessen 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 Chessen 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 gave
her the visa she needed: the Chessens 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,” Chessen 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
Miss Sherri loved children.
She had two more children before
divorcing her husband. Adding six children belonging to her second
husband created a large mixed family that outdid The Brady Bunch. She adores grandchildren.
Her professional life has continued.
- She did voice overs for cartoons.
- From September-December 1970, she had a one-hour variety show on television in Phoenix.
- 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
Chessen is still alive at 93. She has often been a spokeswoman for women's rights.
The steps she had to go through to prevent the birth of a deformed
child 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?
Note: this chapter is from D-L Nelsons Coat Hangers & Knitting Needles about abortion prior to Roe v. Wade.
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