Award-winning filmmaker revisits back alley abortions with screening tour
There’s a whole generation of young women and men who have no idea what the back-alley days were like, what the dangers and casualties were, and how important it is for it to be safe and legal today…
We decided to go back to the back alley and tell our stories, because most people have no idea.
~ Filmmaker and post-abortive mother Dorothy Fadiman (pictured right), explaining the reason for the national touring project Choice at Risk!, featuring her Academy Award-nominated (1996) trilogy of films, From the Back-Alleys to the Supreme Court and Beyond. The tour features footage and interviews of those who remembered what it was like in the pre-Roe vs. Wade days, as featured in the Philadelphia Weekly, September 27
[Photo via stealingamericathemovie.org]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
We’ve had decades of supposedly “safe” and indisputably “legal” but have not been able to deliver on “rare.” The last should be the focus.
Too bad they don’t understand that Pro-Lifers oppose ALL abortions-back alley and front alley-and when the front-alley abortions are illegal, we’re going to be vigilant in bringing back-alley butchers to justice, too.
Don’t want to die from an illegal abortion? Don’t get one.
(See, Pro-Abortionists? We can play that game, too.)
Funny how they never discuss the origin of the term “back alley abortion” I guess they want to perpetuate the image of a woman lying on the asphalt of some dark alley, leaning against a smelly dumpster while some booted candidate from a vodoo priestess academy has at it with a pair of scissors and kitchen knife. You would have thought they would make books by the founding memeber of NARAL required reading. Whoops… maybe not. Rest in peace, Dr. Nathanson.
Don’t want to die from an illegal abortion? Don’t get one.
Awesome, X! Abortion is dangerous because it is all about someone’s death (the child). Don’t blame us for not wanting to make killing your offspring more convenient for you.
“There’s a whole generation of young women and men who have no idea what the back-alley days were like”
Actually, you guys are constantly hammering into our heads what those days were supposedly like, and many of us oppose abortion anyways.
What more can be done to make abortion rare even if legal?
Ever since Roe, the # of unplanned pregnancies has remained at roughly 3 million per year and the # of abortions at roughly 1.5 million per year. In all that time, there has been no significant progress toward making abortion rare.
“There’s a whole generation of young women and men who have no idea what the back-alley days were like”.
Uh..yea..because abortion is so SAFE now. Tell Tonya Reeves that.
There’s not a WHOLE generation, Ms. Fadiman. Thanks to the “front alley” abortions (PP, abortion clinics), there are A LOT of that generation that didn’t make it out alive.
@Martha K: So how DID the term “back-alley abortion” originate?
I had my abortion when it was still not legal in the US. My child was still killed within my womb. No difference – except that now it is legal for me to have killed my child. I was not permitted to speak of the abortion for years – and if my family had their way, I would still not be able to speak of it. My body, my child, my story – I speak of it. Back Alley is no worse than front alley. The baby still dies and the mom still mourns.
Back alley – the best medical facility – I am STILL and will always be opposed to abortion!
Some people choose to huff, cut themselves and play the choking game. We need to legalize these behaviors and give people a clean, safe environment to do this in. Let’s tell people how important it is to make these behaviors safe and legal today…
My Body, My Choice.
Lee, I am so sorry for the loss of your child and I THANK YOU and other moms like you who speak out.
Pamela, I thought the same thoughts as you! I was thinking “I’m sure Laura Hope Smith was glad she didn’t have to die in a back alley abortion. Dying in a safe, legal abortion was so much better.”
Well, in California the “front door butchers” will be less”safe and rare”. :(
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/california-gov-signs-bill-allowing-non-doctors-to-perform-abortions/
Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards added: “by enacting this bill, California [is] once again setting an example of national leadership at a critical time when access to healthcare is under attack.”
the obamateur hellthscarce scam is an attack on health care access.
Yeah, I’m so glad that 1/3 of my generation was slaughtered in safe, legal, rare circumstances and their mothers were able to go on the live happy healthy lives.
Wait….
Today’s world is different and the effects of outlawing abortion will be different. For one thing, effective contraceptives and sterilization might mean fewer unplanned pregnancies. Lesbianism is no longer stigmatized and outlawing abortion may mean girls and women are more likely engage in it rather than heterosexuality.
The Internet and chemical abortions are also here which will make a difference in the “back alley conditions.” A lot of abortion that is illegal will be little different than that which is legal.
Didnt former president and late dr nathansen admit he greatly exaggerated the number of deaths of women by the thousands to push legalization of abortion?
and @ Lee, thank you for your bravery.
Dr. Nathanson, who aborted his own child, admitted in his autobiography that the numbers of abortion deaths were greatly exaggerated.
I am not brave, Musicbringsjoy – I speak out because my child did not have the opportunity to speak for himself.
Sydney – thank you for your condolences. I do wish my child could be here with me today – but you know, he is the PERFECT child, enjoying a beatific vision of God and he is SO perfect that he even prays for his mom! There is always a blessing in every sorrow – and what satan meant for evil, God has turned to His Good. I am blessed.
I wonder if Fadiman’s tour will include an interview with the family of Tonya Reaves or a tour of Roy Carhart’s abortion mill in Nebraska.
I SO do not get this. She is shameless! She freely admits that she didn’t want to be bothered with marriage or pregnancy. She knew it would likely result an abortion. (Adoption was never even a consideration, it sounds like). It’s similar to someone who is hungry and tired, which are natural feelings; but instead of making wise choices, they spend their money on junk food and movies, then complain when they get fat. Please! No one forced her to have sex, or get pregnant, or lie down blindfolded. This is stupidity at its most selfish and brutal. I only feel sorry for her lost soul, and her poor child.
How can we decrease unwanted pregnancies?
One way, obviously, is to decrease the amount of intercourse. This is an inefficient way for the female to receive sexual pleasure so decreasing intercourse is hardly part of a war on women. Do females who have intercourse experience more sexual pleasure than those who do not? If the answer to this is “no,” which it probably is, decreasing intercourse should be a pro-woman goal.
And they will be telling of how abortions prior to 1973 were done by physicians in their offices right??!!
Anything else is a lie.
@ luckymama: Adoption has always been available and still is. Yet thundering multitudes of women do not have babies and place them for adoption.
As I’ve pointed out before, adoptees are 2-3% of the population — and 16% of serial murderers. Adoptees are also 15 times more likely than other people to kill one or both parents.
I admit that the adoption per se MAY not be pivotal in creating this alarming figures. It is possible that women who place for adoption are more likely to have genetic problems that lead to these things or to have been impregnated by men who have negative genetic propensities. The problem MAY not be adoption but that a disproportionate number of “bad seeds” are placed for adoption. It is also possible that women who place for adoption don’t take good care of themselves during the pregnancy or even abuse alcohol or drugs during the pregnancy and that factors into these figures.
Then again, it also could be that the reason for these figures is adoption itself. A baby automatically forms a powerful bond with the girl or woman in whose womb it grows. Break that connection through adoption and the baby is automatically traumatized.
Adoptees may be more likely to see themselves as “strangers.” After all, they are going to be asked: Does your family have a history of diabetes, heart trouble, etc. For these purposes, the adoptive family doesn’t “count.” They may be apt to fantasize about their origins and be troubled by these fantasies. They could simply feel a sense of “abandonment” by the birthmother whom they may think of as their “real” mother. Regarding parricide, it is possible that the lack of a biological connection makes it easier to murder.
Any of the above may contribute to the special horrors connected with adoption. However, I’ve been told that even in the absence of knowing these facts, many women recoil in “horror” at the idea of giving birth and then severing their connection with the baby.
Dear DeniseNoe,
You can manipulate statistics any way you want to. The fact is that of all of the adopted people I know, there are no serial killers among them. None of my friends, family, or acquaintances who are adopted have ever killed anyone. Adoption is a beautiful, life-giving, courageous, loving act on the part of the birthmother, and it is God’s answer to giving a child a family – a mother and a father. It is wrong of you to paint adoption as a terrible option when it is a very loving option. Is there pain? Yes. Are there issues. Yes. Is there joy? Indescribable. Is there joy for the birthmother? Yes. Is there joy for the child adopted? Yes. Every person I know would rather be born than mutilated by an abortionist or an abortifacient while still alive.
To address your other points: in a couple of words: purity, chastity, and abstinence for the unmarried, and natural family planning for the married.
“mutilated by an abortionist or an abortifacient while still alive”.
@Julie: I have close friends who are adopted. In no way am I suggesting that girls or women who either cannot care for their babies or don’t want to care for their babies should be prohibited from placing them for adoption. Adoption will always be necessary partly because mothers will inevitably die in childbirth and for other reasons.
However, the fact is that adoption is very rare.
It also has strong links to special problems and horrors.
I believe in multiple methods to decreasing the appalling number of problem pregnancies. A major way to discourage destructive sexual activity is to revive chaperoned dating. We also have to work to ensure that teen boys and girls are not alone together so they don’t face that temptation.