A friend, stricken by the draconian anti-choice legislation just passed by the South Dakota Legislature, told me she had to talk about her own harrowing experience with a then-illegal abortion.
She wants others to know what that hellish ordeal is like.
It was 1970, several years before the U.S. Supreme Court gave women the right to choose an abortion. My friend was young, scared, unable to take care of a baby, and desperate.
I was dropped off by my boyfriend at a bus stop. I waited there. A car pulled up. A man handed me a blindfold, told me to put it on. I got into the car and he drove me somewhere. At the location, I was guided to a metal table and given anesthesia. Later, I was woken up, driven to a street corner in a nearby town, and dropped off – still groggy and woozy.
In my fog, I had to find a phone to call my boyfriend to pick me up, which he could not do because he was busy at the place where we both worked, so I had to take a bus to the job.
Needless to say, I was very scared, had no idea what was going to happen or how, but knew I was not able to have and raise a child. When I look back, I realize that I threw my life into the hands of total strangers. I have no idea what the level of sterility, professionalism or privacy was involved in the process. Thirty-six years later, I cannot forget it.
My friend is lucky. She survived the terrifying experience. Many other women didn’t. Some were maimed by the end of a metal coat hanger shoved into their uterus.
The South Dakota Legislature in more than 80 percent male. None of those men has to face the fear of an unwanted pregnancy or a life-threatening abortion. Yet, they believe they have the right to deny a woman a safe and legal medical procedure. The South Dakota law is so callous that it only permits a woman to have an abortion if her life is in danger, not if she becomes pregnant because of rape or incest, attacks completely outside her control. Clearly, to these men, an unknown fetus, one whom they will never care for, is more important than a woman.
South Dakota’s governor, equally harsh, said the law he signed was a “direct frontal assault” on the 33-year-old Roe vs. Wade decision. One has to wonder why he and his legislative colleagues believe it is appropriate to toy with a woman’s life in this way. Or why they think a woman’s life is a throwaway. Because you can be sure, if this ruthless law goes into effect, there will be thousands of South Dakota women who would be desperate enough to seek illegal abortions. Some will die in the process.
Now that President Bush has appointed two strongly anti-choice Supreme Court justices, a woman’s right to choose is in severe jeopardy. If the Supreme Court turns the issue back to the states, there will be many legislatures that follow South Dakota’s lead in criminalizing abortion. The majority of Americans who are pro-choice can no longer sit by complacently.
While many say that the radical legislation on choice will backfire on the Republican Party, I wonder how many women will die or be maimed because of back alley abortions before this storm abates. How many babies will be born to mothers unable to care for them, in a society that increasingly tells them to make it on their own?
Coming on top of the current Bush backlash, the South Dakota decision may indeed signal a sea change in American politics as pro-choice Republicans and Democrats fight back to retain long-standing rights for women. Even some anti-choice Republican politicians are worried about this possibility. Given the tragic stories waiting to unfold if the current anti-choice agenda continues, that sea change cannot happen too soon.
Gail Schoettler is a former U.S. ambassador, Colorado lieutenant governor and treasurer, Democratic nominee for governor and Douglas County school board member.
