1.
This Jaw, the first gate to open in the gradual spilling away of federally
protected abortion rights, was reauthorized in every subsequent Congress;
its constitutionality was upheld three times.
In 1993, after along battle, it
was "liberalized" to add exceptions for rape and incest. But while
the government paid for a third of abortions from 1973 to 1977, it now pays
for almost none. Marlene Gerber Fried, " Abortion in the U.S.: Barriers
to Access," Reproductive Health Matters 9 (May 1997): 37-45.
2.
Ellen Frankfort and Frances Kissling, Rosie: Investigation of a Wrongful
Death (New York: Dial Press, 1979).
3.
"Who Decides? A State-by-State Review of Abortion and Reproductive
Rights," 10th ed., National Abortion Rights Action league report,
Washington, D.C., 2001.
4.
By the 1990s, more than 80 percent of clinics were regularly picketed by
anti-abortion activists. Ann Cronin, " Abortion: The Rate vs. the Debate," New York Times, February 25,1997, "Week in
Review," 4.
5.
The agency reported at least fifteen bombings and arson attacks at clinics each
year from 1993 through 1995, seven in 1996, and one in Atlanta in 1997 that
injured six people. Rick Bragg, "Abortion Clinic Hit by 2 Bombs; Six Are
Injured," New York Times, January 17,1997.
6.
Jim Yardley and David Rohde, "Abortion Doctor in Buffalo Slain; Sniper
Attack Fits Violent Pattern," New York Times, October 25, 1998, Al.
7.
Alan Guttmacher Institute, "Into a New World: Young Women's Sexual and
Reproductive Lives," Executive Summary (New York: the institute,
1988).
8.
Women ages eighteen to twenty-four are about twice as likely to have abortions
as women in the general polulation.
Stanley K. Henshaw and Katryn Kost, "Abortion Patients in 1994-1995:
Characteristics and Contraceptive Use," Family Planning Perspectives 28 (1996): 140-47,158.
9.
Robert Pear, "Provision on Youth Health Insurance Would Sharply Limit
Access to Abortion," New York Times, July 3,1997.
10.
About twenty-six million have legal abortions yearly, and an estimated twenty
million have illegal ones, ending about half of all unplanned pregnancies. Alan
Guttmacher Institute News, January 21, 1999.
11. Estimated rates ran from one in ten to almost one in two, and among Kinsey's unmarried informants, 90 percent of those who got pregnant procured abortions.
![]() |
Lawrence Lader, Abortion (New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1966),64-74; |
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Kristin Luker, Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984),48-49; |
![]() |
Brett Harvey, The Fifties: A Women's Oral
History (New York: Harper Collins, 1993),24. |
12.
"Abortion Common among All Women Even Those Thought to Oppose
Abortion," Alan Guttmacher Institute press release, 1996.
13.
Cronin, "Abortion: The Rate vs. the Debate."
14.
In a New York Times-CBS poll in 1998, half of respondents thought abortion was
too easy to get; as compared with 1989, fewer people felt that an interrupted
career or education was an acceptable reason to get an abortion; and only 15
percent believed abortion was acceptable in the second trimester.
"[P]ublic
opinion has shifted notably away from general acceptance of legal abortion and
toward an evolving center of gravity: a more nuanced, conditional acceptance
that some call a 'permit but discourage' model."
Carey Goldberg with
Janet Elder, "public Still Backs Abortion, but Wants Limits, Poll
Says," New York Times, January 16, 1998,Al.
15.
Jennifer Baumgartner, "The Pro-Choice PR Problem," Nation (March
5,2001): 19-23.
16. Naomi Wolf, "Our Bodies, Our Souls: Rethinking Pro-Choice Rhetoric," New Republic (October 16,1995): 26-27.
17.
Janet Hadley, "The' Awfulisation' of Abortion," paper presented to
the Abortion Matters conference, Amsterdam, March 1996.
18. "Abortion Common. ..," Guttmacher Institute.
19.
Nation columnist Katha Pollitt is one of the few who has defended the
morality of abortion.
20.
See, for example, Vincent M. Rue, "The Psychological Realities of Induced
Abortion," in Post-Abortion Aftermath: A Comprehensive Consideration,
ed. Michael T. Mannion {Franklin, Wis.: Sheed and Ward, 1994).
The anti-choice group Operation Rescue has widely distributed Focus on the
Family's pamphlet Identifying and Overcoming Post Abortion Syndrome, by
Teri K. and Paul C. Reisser {Colorado Springs: Focus on the Family, revised
1994).
21.
"Abortion Study Finds No Long-Term III Effects on Emotional Well
Being," Family Planning Perspectives 29 (July/August 1997): 193;
Jane E. Brody, "Study Disputes Abortion Trauma," New York Times, February
12, 1997, C8.
22.
"Researchers Document. Flaw in Research Linking Abortion and Breast
Cancer," Reproductive Freedom News 20 {December 20, 1996), quoting
Journal of the National Cancer Institute {December 4, 1996).
23.
Rebecca Stone and Cynthia Waszak, " Adolescent Knowledge and Attitudes
about Abortion," Family Planning Perspectives 24 {Narcg 1992): 53.
24. Stone and Waszak, " Adolescent Knowledge and Attitudes. "
25.
Connecticut, Michigan, and Rhode Island, to name three, forbade discussion of
abortion as a reproductive health method; South Carolina allowed discussion
of the procedure but only its negative consequences.
"Sexuality Education
in America: A State-by-State Review," National Abortion Rights Action
League report, Washington, D.C., 1995.
Under the federal abstinence-only
regulations, of course, abortion may not be mentioned.
26. Sex Respect Student Workbook, 95.
27. On the tonsillectomy comparison,
see "Safety of Abortion," National Abortion Rights Action League
fact sheet, Washington, D.C., undated, received 1998; and
Review ofFear-Based
Programs, SIECUS Community Action Kit, 1994: 6.
On the shot of
penicillin comparison, see Margie Kelly, "Legalized Abortion: A Public
Health Success Story," Reproductive Freedom News (June 1999): 7.
28.
Girls Incorporated, Taking Care of Business: A Sexuality Education Program
for Young Teen Women Ages 15-18 {Indianapolis: Girls Inc., 1998), vol. 6,
1-6.
29. Sex Can Wait {Santa Cruz, Calif.: ETR Associates, 1998),290.
30.
Peggy Brick and Bill Taverner, The New Positive Images: Teaching
31.
After reading the curricula used in public schools, I find it a relief and
inspiration to peruse the Unitarian Universalist Church's Our Whole Lives.
Its
curricula both for seventh- to ninth-graders and for older high schoolers
present thorough discussions of the values debate around abortion, as well
as explicit descriptions of the procedures and clear statements of abortion's
safety.
The tenth- to twelfth-grade text titles the section on abortion
"Reproductive Rights."
Pamela M. Wilson, Our Whole Lives:
Sexuality Education for Grades 7 to 9 (Boston: Unitarian
Universalist Association/United Church Board for Homeland Ministries, 1999);
Eva S. Goldfarb and Elizabeth M. Casparian, Our Whole Lives: Sexuality
Education for Grades 10 to 12 (Boston: Unitarian Universalist
Association/ United Church Board for Homeland Ministries, 1999),199-212.
32.
Alan Guttmacher Institute, "Teenage Pregnancy and the Welfare Reform
Debate," Issues in Brief (Washington, D.C.: the institute, 1995).
33.
Hector Sanchez-Flores, speaking at the Adolescent Sexual Health: New Data and
Implications for Services and Programs conference, sponsored by Planned
Parenthood of New York City and other organizations, October 26, 1998.
34.
on metropolitan areas, see Barbara Vobejda, "Study Finds Fewer facilities
Offering Abortions," Washingtom Post, December II, 1998, A4.
35.
The Defense Department also prohibited both federally and privately funded
abortions at military facilities. Cronin, " Abortion: The Rate vs. the
Debate."
36.
National Abortion Rights Action League, 1998 statistics (accessed on www.naral.org
), Washington, D.C.
37.
Margaret C. Crosby and Abigail English, "Should Parental Consent to or
Notification of an Adolescent's Abortion Be Required by Law? No"; and
Everett L. Worthington, "Should Parental Consent. ..? Yes"; both in Debating
Children's Lives: Current Controversies on Children and Adolescents, ed.
Mary Ann Mason and Eileen Gambrill (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications,
1994), 143 and 133, respectively.
38. Crosby and English, "Should Parental Consent. ..? No," 143.
39.
Court approval by "judicial bypass," the legal remedy to the discriminatory burden such regulations place on girls who can't talk to their
families, may even discourage such conversations. Crosby and English,
"Should Parental Consent. ..? No."
40.
"Induced Termination of Pregnancy before and after Roe v. Wade, Trends
in the Mortality and Morbidity of Women," Journal of the American
Medical Association 268, no.22 (December 1993): 3238.
41.
American Medical Association, Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs,
"Mandatory Parental Consent to Abortion," Journal of the American
Medical Association 269, no.1 (January 6, 1993): 83.
42.
Lizette Alvarez, "GOP Bill to Back Parental Consent Abortion Laws," New
York Times, May 21, 1998, A30.
The datum that young women support parental
involvement laws was gleaned from a nationwide study of teens and young adult
women, but since this fact did not support the political aims of the group that
conducted the study, the group's board of directors has chosen not to publicize
it.
43.
"Woman Is Sentenced for Aid in Abortion," New York Times, December 17, 1996.
44.
"Debate Continues on Child Custody Protection Act," Reproductive
Freedom News 7, no.5 (June 1, 1998): 3-4; "Women's Stories: Becky
Bell," National Abortion Rights Action League report, Washington, D.C.,
undated.
45.
Alvarez, "GOP Bill."
46.
The bill was reintroduced in 2001. At this writing, it has not been voted on.
47.
Tamar Lewin, "Poll of Teenagers: Battle of the Sexes on Roles in
Family," New York Times, July 11,1994, Al.
48.
Addressing this atavistic social problem, lawmakers in two dozen states have
proposed granting money to women who dispose of unwanted infants, as long as the
babies are still breathing and the mothers leave them in an authorized location,
such as a hospital.
Currently, many states prosecute mothers who abandon their
newborns.
Jacqueline L. Salmon, "For Unwanted Babies, a Safety Net," Washington
Post, October 20,2000.