I Remember the World Before Roe

I do not want to go back

Guest post by Dr. Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, Distinguished Professor, Community Liaison, and Research Consultant for the Howard Thurman Center, Hartford International Univ. and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor Emerita of African-American Studies and Sociology at Colby College in Waterville, ME. USED BY PERMISSION

I remember the world before Roe and I do not want to go back. We need to understand that before there was Roe v.Wade, there was a two tiered system of abortion.

One tier, the privileged tier had the options to utilize private physicians who routinely provided D&C's or removed "healthy" appendices for their well-heeled patients. In states where abortion access was mediated by hospital committees, the well connected gynecologist was able to help their patients to negotiate that process to acquire an abortion to save her health or her life.

The other tier was a deadly blood-soaked tier. Women on this tier, disconnected and. underprivileged, either sought back alley abortions, abortions that led to infections, hemorrhages, infertility, and death or, in deep desperation, attempted to end pregnancies by drinking varieties of folk remedies or tossing themselves down flights of stairs in order to induce miscarriages. The coat hanger and the knitting needle are grim symbols of life on this tier. Anyone who worked in hospitals prior to the Roe v. Wade decision would throw up their hands and moan, "the blood! the blood! the blood!"

Yes, many a teenage girl would get sent to spend a year with her aunt and be forced to give up their illegitimate baby for adoption, but that was largely what social workers and adoption agencies called "the blue ribbon baby market"--the market for healthy white infants. For a number of affluent white women their parents' forcing them to relinquish their babies remained lifelong unresolved trauma.

Black women in similar situations often but not always discovered the benefit of the "informal" adoption market among parents and extended kin. That practice was so noticeable that Urban League sociologist, Robert Hill, identified that informal practice as one of the "strengths" of Black families.

Before Roe v. Wade, the state of New York legalized abortion. Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, in her memoir "Unbought and Unbossed" pointed out that an important health statistic--the gravid mother death rate--plummeted and practically disappeared once abortion was legalized. That datum solidified her position as a pro-choice Congresswoman and presidential candidate.

Those of us who like myself are old enough to remember the pre-Roe days know that policies that kill women create ripples of pain throughout families, communities, and society. Let us be pro-life in making sure that women survive and receive the total package of health care necessary for the quality of life that makes possible fully supported healthy parenthood by choice and the survival of every child who draws breath in this world.