A Question of Choice: Roe v. Wade 40th Anniversary Edition - Softcover

Weddington, Sarah

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1558618120 ISBN 13: 9781558618121

Verlag: The Feminist Press at CUNY, 2013

Inhaltsangabe

A memoir filled with “valuable, passionate insights” from the lawyer who argued the landmark Roe v. Wade case to the Supreme Court (Kirkus Reviews).

More than 40 years ago, the highest court in the land handed down a decision that would forever alter the lives of women throughout the United States. Roe v. Wade became the seminal lawsuit that gave American women the legal right to abortion.

Weddington, just 27 years old in 1973, became a key figure in the reproductive rights movement when she took on the case. Here she recounts her remarkable story, from her personal experience with abortion and the workforce discrimination she faced in her early career to the judicial proceedings and long journey she has undertaken in fighting for women’s rights since.

As divisive as ever, the famous decision is continually threatened by organized pro-life groups. Weddington compels “those who are willing to share the responsibility of protecting choice,” to follow her plan of action in supporting the legal rights of women. A Question of Choice is an “eloquent reminder of what Roe truly means—that our most private decisions can be made behind the closed doors of our homes, with our families, and in private conversations with our hearts” (Former President Bill Clinton).

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Sarah Weddington is an attorney and lecturer from Austin Texas. She became a key figure in the reproductive rights movement when at the age of twenty-seven she successfully argued Roe v. Wade, the landmark court case that gave American women the right to abortion. She has served in the Texas house of representatives, and was a White House advisor to President Jimmy Carter. Weddington travels the country, lecturing on leadership and women's issues.

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A Question of Choice

By Sarah Weddington

Feminist Press

Copyright © 2013 Sarah Richards
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-55861-812-1

Contents

Introduced by Rebecca Seawright, 
Foreword by Cecile Richards, 
Beginnings, 
Yearning for More Choices for Women, 
The Roots of Roe v. Wade, 
Off to Washington, 
Preparing for Supreme Court Argument, 
A Great Day in Court, 
VICTORY, 
Storm Clouds Gathering, 
Rising Opposition to Roe, 
Words of Choice, 
Remembering the Past, Looking to the Future, 
A Plan to Fight for Reproductive Rights, 
A Few Last Comments, 
Acknowledgments, 
Resources, 
Photo Insert, 

CHAPTER 1

Beginnings

Three scenes summarize my life. Picture those the public knows: First, a triumphant, young woman, five years out of law school, celebrating the victory of a Supreme Court case she has won, Roe v. Wade, which overturns the Texas anti-abortion statutes and makes abortion legal throughout the United States. Second, a worried, mature woman, four decades later, writing and speaking with every ounce of energy to prevent what she hoped and believed American women would never again know: the horrors of a time when abortion was illegal.

This book tells the story of those scenes and of the years that surround them. It is the story of Roe v. Wade, which has been called one of the most significant Supreme Court cases of this century. It was won by the cumulative efforts of many, but the spearhead of the effort that legalized abortion in the nation began in Austin, Texas. The final outcome of the story of legal abortion in America will be written in the future, perhaps by one who has read this book.

But there is also a third scene for me, one I have in common with millions of women: a scared graduate student in 1967 who traveled to a dirty, dusty Mexican border town to have an abortion, fleeing the law that made abortion illegal in Texas.

MY MOUTH GOES DRY as I put myself back in those days in Austin when my period was late. I was in my third year of law school, going to school full-time and supporting myself by working several jobs. I was seriously dating Ron Weddington, who was finishing his undergraduate degree after returning from the army; he was planning to start law school the following summer. I had been celibate until our relationship progressed to the point that we were talking about getting married.

Each day I kept hurrying to the women's lounge in the law school between classes, hoping to find that something had happened; each day I was disappointed. I had to fight to maintain my routine, to work on my class assignments and to complete the demands of my jobs. I had to fight to keep my mind from being incapacitated by the questions that haunted me: What if I were pregnant? What would I do if I were? I had law school to finish and couldn't do that unless I was working. My parents were supporting two other children in college on a minimal income. I was not emotionally ready to commit to marriage. Even if we married, Ron had years of schooling ahead and I needed to work and shoulder our support. My parents would be disappointed in me. What would people who knew me think?

The only person who knew my dilemma was Ron. There were many reasons we were together. We had similar backgrounds; each of us spent our early years in Abilene, a flat, dry Texas town, and longed to be part of a wider world and experience more than the usual events in West Texas. I had led a very "proper" life, but Ron had seen more of the world. I enjoyed talking to him about my studies, his travels and military service, and politics. I loved his sense of humor and his eagerness to explore the world. It also pleased me that he was taller and smarter than I and that we had both been student leaders in high school. He had few stereotyped notions about appropriate roles for women; he did not think it at all strange that I, a woman, would want a career in law.

Ron went through those anxious days with me. He had already made it clear that he did not want children. I had no strong feelings either way and had told him that if we got married, whatever he wanted was fine with me. We began to go over the possibilities. Abortion was one, but we were worried about the risks of an illegal procedure. Ron said that he would help me, whatever I decided to do, and that the final decision was mine to make.

When I was in high school in Vernon, near Wichita Falls, Texas, and the Oklahoma border, I remembered there was a clinic near downtown where a doctor performed illegal abortions. The more adventurous teenagers would drive by late at night to check the license plates of cars in the area; they were from Oklahoma, Arkansas, and other nearby states. I remembered news stories from 1962 about Sherri Finkbine, a television personality and young mother of four in Scottsdale, Arizona, who had taken thalidomide while she was pregnant. When it was announced that the drug could cause mutations of the fetus — it might be born without arms or legs, for instance — she defied an Arizona court by traveling to Sweden to abort her severely deformed fetus. I thought what she had to go through was awful. Ron had heard stories of women who had had abortions, but abortion was something I had never talked about with friends or family.

If we decided on abortion, the next problem was: Where to go? There were no ads in phone books or newspapers; this was all undercover. You had to find someone who knew a name, a place — and I refused to tell anyone my situation. Fortunately, Ron was not as humiliated about this as I. He offered to make some calls and talk to a few acquaintances.

I made an appointment with a gynecologist under a false name; by the time I learned the test was positive, I knew I wanted an abortion. Ron had a friend who knew about a doctor in Piedras Negras, a Mexican town across from the border town of Eagle Pass, Texas; from its center to that of Piedras Negras was 2.6 miles. The doctor had some medical experience in the United States, spoke excellent English, and performed abortions. Abortion was illegal in Mexico, but the woman Ron spoke to told him abortions were done in many places; she assumed the doctors paid off the police to keep things quiet. She said several women she knew had been to this doctor, and that everything had turned out fine. He charged $400 — cash only. My entire savings got us nearly there, and Ron made up the rest. He called for an appointment, made the necessary arrangements, and planned a weekend away. He obtained a powerful painkiller from his best friend who was a doctor's son, and the name of someone who might help if I ended up in medical trouble.

We left Austin early on a Friday morning, drove to Eagle Pass, checked into a motel, and went across the border to the meeting place. I was scared of the unknown, but mercifully I had been spared the horror stories I was later to hear from many women. In my mind's eye, I can still see Ron and me following a man in brown pants and a white guayabera shirt down dirt alleys to a small, white building, two young Americans trying unsuccessfully to blend into the background.

I was grateful that the inside of the building was clean. I could not read what appeared to be a medical diploma on the wall, but it made me feel better. Besides the staff, we were the only ones there. Soon a nurse motioned for me to come through a door. Ron squeezed my hand, and I was on my way to put my life, my future, in the hands of strangers.

I was one of the lucky...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: The Feminist Press at CUNY
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2013
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1558618120
• ISBN 13: 9781558618121
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Auflage: 2
• Anzahl der Seiten: 352
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: preigu; mail@preigu.de; ; Lengericher Landstr. 19; Osnabrück; 49078; Deutschland