The First Legal Abortion Providers Tell Their Stories

October 15, 2015 5:07 PM

The Cut [NYMag] speaks to seven doctors who practiced on the cusp of Roe. Many are still practicing.

“No matter how much you shame and scare them, women will still come for abortions. Pretty recently I had this young woman, 15 maybe, and we did the procedure. I said, ‘Your uterus is empty, the procedure is over. I have to go check to make sure we got everything,’ and I left the room to examine the tissue. Then I came back and told her, ‘Everything’s fine, your uterus is healthy.’ And she said, ‘So … when are you going to use the steel ball?’ I picked my jaw up off the floor and said, ‘Steel ball?’ She said, ‘Well, I went to the crisis pregnancy center and they told me you’re going to put a steel ball that’s covered with sharp blades into my uterus and twirl it around.’ And this kid still came! I was thinking, How did you ever make yourself walk in the office believing I was going to do that?”

posted by melissasaurus (9 comments total)

I used to think "if people only knew what it was like pre-Roe, even the anti-choice forced birthers would eventually come around to safe, legal, and rare because of some of the horror stories."

Now I'm not so sure -- I think there are a large number of people working to put through these TRAP laws who realize exactly what will/could go down from the pre-Roe days, and think any woman who dies hemorrhaging to death from a back alley abortion would have it coming to her.
posted by mostly vowels at 7:00 PM on October 15, 2015 [6 favorites]

I was wondering if this had made it here yet.

Know your history, people. Respect your elders. The legal progress we enjoy today was inevitably fought for a generation or two ago (or less), and we need to know how those people accomplished what they did to be able to continue the work of renewing our societies into the future.
posted by wormwood23 at 7:26 PM on October 15, 2015

So, so thankful for the medical professionals who do this important work.

Also, it is completely unconscionable that these so-called pregnancy crisis centres prey on women at one of their most vulnerable and scared moments.
posted by cynical pinnacle at 7:33 PM on October 15, 2015 [2 favorites]

Anitanola told her story about getting an abortion in the pre-Roe years. These stories are important, and the people who tell them also.
posted by rtha at 7:40 PM on October 15, 2015 [5 favorites]

Here's my pre-Roe abortion story. It was not as fraught, but I was very, very lucky.
posted by caryatid at 10:03 AM on October 16, 2015

She said, ‘Well, I went to the crisis pregnancy center and they told me you’re going to put a steel ball that’s covered with sharp blades into my uterus and twirl it around.’

One State Finally Cracked Down on Deceptive Anti-Abortion Pregnancy Centers

Previously.
posted by homunculus at 8:27 PM on October 16, 2015

Side note: Just want to endorse the new movie Grandma as a good multi-generational affirming abortion story. Lily Tomlin's character went through what is implied as a highly traumatic pre-Roe abortion, and she clearly relives certain aspects of the "bad old days" as she helps her granddaughter go through an abortion in a professional and compassionate facility. It's hard not to read a subtext of the sacrifices older women made for younger generations, and how perilously close we are to losing it all over again.
posted by mostly vowels at 8:52 PM on October 16, 2015 [2 favorites]

One State Finally Cracked Down on Deceptive Anti-Abortion Pregnancy Centers

We really, really need this nationwide.

Thanks for the previously, homunculus. A lot of good discussion in that thread. I had missed reading that thread somehow.
posted by cynical pinnacle at 5:40 AM on October 17, 2015

Great piece, thanks for posting it.
posted by gingerest at 4:12 PM on October 17, 2015