Issue #2 BEFORE ROE v. WADE

ABORTION: TALK ABOUT IT Keep abortion accessible. Speak up and speak out

QUICK QUIZ

1. Before abortions were legal, what’s the estimate of how many occurred annually?

            a.  About 5,000     b.  About 500,000     c.  Up to 1,000,000

   The correct answer is c.

   2, Some of the methods used were:  

    a. Back alley abortions    b. Coat  hangers     c. Poisons   d. All of the above

      The correct answer is d.

 Nothing fake about our facts. Check out References

BEFORE ROE v. WADE

Lack of access to legal and safe abortion does not stop it from happening. It only makes it more dangerous. We know why coat hangers became a symbol of botched abortion. Inserting knitting needles or wire hangers through the cervix, ingesting poisons, throwing oneself down the stairs were only some of the desperate measure used to self-induce abortion. Thousands more resorted to back-alley abortions and even suicide.

The 1973 Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade, acknowledged that restrictive laws did not prevent abortion. Instead the laws were exacting a significant toll on people’s lives, most notably those with limited resources. After Roe v. Wade, death and hospitalizations due to unsafe abortion almost entirely ended.

Since Roe v. Wade, states have passed more than 1,200 restrictions on abortion access. In 2019, 378 additional abortion restrictions have been introduced. Desperate measures are on the rise again.

We remember and won’t to go back!

OWRS (Older Women Remember and Speak Out) has developed ABORTION; TALK ABOUT IT,  a series of short emails with reliable information that you can use to start conversations and support others doing the same. Previous issues at ARCHIVE . Share these emails on social media. Forward to friends, family and co-workers. Ask them to go to OWRSpeakout.org and sign up.

We can’t change something we don’t talk about.

From Older Women Remember and Speak Out

OWRS Issue #2, October 2019