Keep remembering 'Roe v. Wade'

By Hara Sherman

Twenty-five years after the Roe v. Wade decision granted women the right to an abortion, we, the first abortion-legal generation, have reached dating age, abortion age, and voting age. Do we have any conception of our role as the first abortion-legal generation, of this freedom over our bodies, or of the horrors we escaped?

There is a growing cult of pro-life youth who organize Rock for Life concerts and campus rallies to reform abortion legislation. Playing eardrum-breaking music and sporting chains, tattoos, and body piercings, they distribute bumper stickers which read, "Abortion is mean." They refer to this era, in which approximately 1.5 million abortions are performed in the United States annually, as a holocaust. They blame prom-night pregnancies on the moral depravity of an abortion-legal atmosphere.

But one fact cries out more loudly than their pro-life lyrics: the same number of abortions were being performed before the Supreme Court ruling as are performed now (the number has been decreasing recently due to the contraceptive campaign). The difference is women now go to clinics rather than basements and are assisted by doctors and not dry-cleaners.

In the months following the Roe v. Wade ruling, maternal mortality rates dropped 45 percent in many states, including New York and California, according to historian Leslie J. Reagan. Legalized abortion lowers maternal mortality rates, whereas illegal abortion is more than mean to mothers.

Another menace to Roe v. Wade is found in the aggressively political neo-conservative women who promote a brand of anti-feminism jumbled with tax reform and arguments against affirmative action.

These conservative forces have gained ground too. In 1992 the Supreme Court ruling on Planned Parenthood v. Casey allowed more government restrictions, like extended waiting periods, to be legislated. Fewer than half the states provide Medicaid funding for abortions, limiting abortion rights to the haves.

In addition to legislation curbing abortion rights, violent pro-life protests have claimed the lives of clinic workers and patients. In the wake of the 25th anniversary celebration, a bomb, just outside the New Woman, All Women Health Care Clinic in Birmingham, Ala., killed a guard and severely wounded a nurse. The bitter irony of this type of demonstration is that it wins no sympathy for the pro-life argument.

The anti-abortion movement is riddled with many such hypocrisies: there is a growing number of pro-life activists who seem to deliberately undermine their platform. For instance, Susan Carpenter-McMillan, a spokeswoman for the Right to Life League of Southern California, confessed in 1990 to two abortions, one legal and one illegal, during the height of her activism.

Although she appears on television frequently to denounce "murdering" mothers, and even opposes abortion in the case of rape, McMillan admits to says of her abortion, "It was my own private life." Well put, Ms. Carpenter-McMillan.

The greatest risk to the Supreme Court ruling is, ironically, medical technology itself. The original ruling focused on fetal viability outside the womb, which occurred after about seven months of pregnancy in 1973. Now, however, the seven months have shrunk to less than six.

Developments in neonatology are forcing abortion rights back onto the table, requiring new definitions and parameters. As modern medicine pushes fetal viability closer to conception and ultrasound images proliferate, the basis of the Roe v. Wade decision becomes ever more unsteady.

According to a New York Times poll, many young women walking in and out of abortion clinics think that women have always had the right to an abortion. This right, however, is young and needs nurturing. Knowing who Roe was and exactly what Wade thought may not mean much, but it remains crucial that young people realize that abortion is a legal right, granted by a Supreme Court ruling, and which, without protection and support, may not live long.

Hara Sherman is a sophomore in Ezra Stiles.

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