I woke my daughter up the other day because she slept through her alarm. I meant to give her a gentle shake and a little kiss but instead I found myself tearful as I leaned over her. The New York Times had circulated a headline: "In a 6-to-3 Ruling, Supreme Court Ends Nearly 50 Years of Abortion Rights".
"What?" murmured my daughter, blinking at me. "Why are you crying?"
"They overturned Roe."
"Just now?"
"Yes. Sweetie, get up. You and your brothers and all your friends have to fix the world. Come on. Up."
My Grandma Ruth had abortions back in the 1930s, in Brooklyn. They were illegal, but a progressive doctor named Sarah Greenberg saw the procedure as essential healthcare and offered it to her community. She gave public talks in schools and community centers and conducted research on birth control. On Wednesday, June 11, 1919, for instance, the New York Evening Call reported that Dr. Greenberg would speak about "sex hygiene...All women welcome." She continued giving talks for more than a decade. In 1934, according to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Monday, March 19, 1934), Dr. Greenberg spoke about sex to parents at PS 230, Albemarle Road and McDonald Ave. (In addition, says the item, Mrs. Lucy McDonald, chairman of the school board, presented a Bible to the school in a special assembly that morning.) I do not know exactly how my grandmother came to know Dr. Greenberg--maybe through attending her talks--but my mother remembers the doctor well.
Abortion happens. It always has. It always will. It happens in spite of the Supreme Court 'decision' that it won't. What the court struck down was the nation's right--its mandate--to ensure access to legal abortion. In the same session the court struck down New York State's right to control laws about handguns.
 |
| Forced to carry-- or to break the law |
So hard to believe Roe vs Wade is no longer the law of the land. Jane Roe, I recall, was the pseudonym for Norma McCorvey, whose 1970 fight for the right to a legal abortion in Texas spawned the court ruling that has just been overturned. (Who was Wade, though? Must check.) McCorvey spawned not just the ruling but a child, since by the time of the decision in 1973, she had lost her personal battle to abort the pregnancy. She gave the resulting child up for adoption, and later adopted an anti-abortion stance. Still later she changed her mind again, reasserting her belief in a woman's right to choose.
Fine. It's a woman's prerogative to change her mind. A man's too. It's also a woman's right to make up her mind. A woman, the court needs reminding, is a person, not chattel. Her body, womb, brain, and all, is her own. The overtly partisan jurists responsible for the overthrow also seem to have changed their minds, clearly reneging on their statements, made under oath to Congress, that they regarded 'Roe v Wade' as 'settled law' when they were confirmed. The Supreme Court may need renaming in light of such shameful, possibly illicit behavior. I've looked for antonyms to 'supreme' and can't find much. "Inferior" or "subordinate". The Subordinate Court of the United States? Perhaps even the Suborned Court.
I am very glad I never found myself in want or need of an abortion. I had a scare once in my twenties, and knew instantly what my choice would be. The anxiety I experienced for those few days of uncertainty, while unpleasant, remained tamped down because of Roe. Because there existed healthcare intervention to avoid continuing a pregnancy I absolutely would not want. Many of my friends have sought--and gotten--safe and compassionate terminations. Some of these friends were young and unready to carry a pregnancy to term, while others were married and unwilling to do so. Not my business. Not the court's business. A woman's business.
Abortion was not legal when Grandma Ruth had her abortions. She and her family--my family--had the good fortune to be acquainted with Dr. Greenberg. Abortions have always, will always, occur. The demand will not disappear because Roe v Wade did. Safe abortions will diminish across much of the US.
I hope and fear for today's Sarah Greenbergs.
People are talking and writing about a "post-Roe world", one in which not only the right to this aspect of healthcare has been abrogated but as well other rights to choice and privacy. At risk, broadly, is individual decision-making around who gets to have sex with whom and why. The "American obsession" is what Marlene Dietrich called sex, way back in the middle of the the 20th century. Now add guns.
I find myself grateful that my husband, children, and I can call Canada home. It feels like a safe or at least safer haven, although I know that there are some places here in the True North where abortions cannot be easily obtained. I know there are guns around. There are, worst of all, extreme conservatives, some of them in high office. We have to remain, as the national anthem exhorts us, on guard. Thanks for the lesson, USA.
How to fix this sinking world? What weapons have we got for the fight? How to contain the American obsessions? How can the next generation get back what we had, what Sarah Greenberg and my grandmother paved the way for us to have?
And who the heck was Wade?
