General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forumsin remembrance of women who died from illegal and unsafe abortions
(to those bastards, and the women who support them, who want us to return to THIS: may you all rot in your hell)
In Remembrance: Women Who Died from Illegal and Unsafe Abortions
The seven women below are just a small representation of the countless women who have died because they did not have access to safe and legal abortions. Most of these women died before Roe v. Wade offered them a safe alternative. However, women continue to die and suffer injury due to current restrictions that particularly affect young women and poor women.
Our government is now controlled by conservative leaders who are extremely hostile to women's reproductive rights. If more retsictions on abortion are enacted, and especially if Roe v. Wade is overturned, this list of lives cut short could grow to include our daughters, sisters, mothers, best friends, wives, partners, granddaughters and other special women and girls...
Clara Bell Duvall
Clara Bell Duvall
Dec. 23, 1896 - March 27, 1929
Clara Duvall, her husband and five children (ages 6 months to 12 years) were living in Pittsburgh, Pa., with her parents due to limited financial resources when she learned she was pregnant again. Clara attempted a self-abortion with a knitting needle. Her doctor, knowing she was seriously ill and in severe pain, delayed sending her to a hospital for several weeks. The Catholic hospital where she died chose to list the cause of death as "pneumonia."
Ruth Irene Friedl
Aug. 24, 1901 - Aug. 21, 1929
Denied a legal abortion though her pregnancy was diagnosed as life-threatening, Ruth Friedl attempted to self-abort by drinking a plant poison, ergot apiol. That night at the dinner table of their home in Denver, Colo., with her husband and two small children present, she collapsed and died.
Pauline Roberson Shirley
Pauline Roberson Shirley
June 22, 1910 - August 22, 1940
Pauline Shirley and her six children were living with her mother in Arizona while her husband sought work in California. After an illegal abortion, she began to hemorrhage and was hospitalized. She needed massive transfusions. While Pauline's mother searched the community for donors, Pauline bled to death.
Vivian Campbell
December 12, 1925 - May 6, 1950
Vivian Campbell was the mother of two children ages five and three. She was newly separated from her husband when she realized she was pregnant. Sending her children to stay with her parents, she sought and obtained an illegal abortion. She sent for her husband, but by the time he arrived at the hospital it was too late. She died in agony of peritonitis.
Geraldine Santoro
August 16, 1935 - June 8, 1964
The photo of Geraldine Santoro dead on a hotel room floor has become a symbol for the horror of illegal abortion. Gerri, as she was known, lived on her family farm in Coventry, Conn., with her two daughters. At the age of 28, separated from her abusive husband, she became pregnant by another man, Clyde Dixon. Afraid that her husband would kill her if he found out, she and Dixon looked for ways to terminate her pregnancy. With no other options, they attempted to perform the procedure themselves. When the operation went awry, Dixon fled, leaving Santoro behind where she bled to death. A chambermaid found her body the next morning.
Rosie Jimenez
Rosie Jimenez
1950 - Oct. 3, 1977
A single mother with a 5-year-old daughter, Rosie Jimenez of McAllen, Texas, was a scholarship student six months away from her teaching credential. She was the first known victim of the Hyde Amendment, which cut off Medicaid funding for abortion to women on public assistance women who by the government's own definition cannot afford health care. Too poor to pay for the procedure at a private clinic, she died in agony from a botched illegal abortion.
Becky Bell
Becky Bell
August 24, 1971 - Sept. 16, 1988
At 17, Becky became a victim of an Indiana state law requiring parental consent for a minor to obtain an abortion. Unable to bring herself to disappoint her parents by telling them she was pregnant or go before a judge to bypass the law Becky sought an illegal abortion. When she became seriously ill, her parents rushed her to the hospital. In severe pain from a massive infection, Becky still could not tell them, and despite the efforts of the doctors, she died.
http://www.now.org/issues/abortion/120904women-who-died.html
liberal N proud
(60,334 posts)But a few men think they know better.
Look how many of these women already had children.
This is what the GOP platform is about. Punishment of working-class and poor women. And their children, and their families.
GreenPartyVoter
(72,377 posts)jsmirman
(4,507 posts)they truly scare me. Monsters, the lot of them.
CTyankee
(63,912 posts)She kept saying "abortion is not the only issue" even tho she had two at risk daughters at the time. I could not persuade her to run the video when we visited the jointly owned summer owned where we stayed. I was outnumbered; nobody wanted to talk about abortion.
Things have gotten even worse with this side of the family now. They are pretty horrible, suing neighbors for stupid stuff and making life difficult for her brother and me. It is too bad. I know her daughters are good people but she is a real mossback...
patrice
(47,992 posts)these lives represents a universe of lost human potentials, to themselves, to their families, to their friends, and to the rest of us and, if that doesn't matter, then neither do fetuses.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)jwirr
(39,215 posts)back alley butcher killed a girl who was getting an abortion. I have always thought that no one was complaining about the ones that we did not know about the ones that were done in safer circumstances. Often the ones that the rich girls got from their family doctors.
Chorophyll
(5,179 posts)Just like now.
TBF
(32,062 posts)I believe one of her daughters is a long-term member of DU. I seem to remember that from a couple of years ago ... very sad case.
laundry_queen
(8,646 posts)Duppers
(28,120 posts)Her handle is Control-Z. She's an amazing person.
She and her sister spoke at this march in DC:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=1189621
Chorophyll
(5,179 posts)REP
(21,691 posts)TBF
(32,062 posts)but I remembered the story.
alittlelark
(18,890 posts)Poignant.
niyad
(113,315 posts)mind that I have mentioned her mother.
Duppers
(28,120 posts)She has spoken very publicly about this personal tragedy...at this march in DC:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=1189621
PlanetBev
(4,104 posts)I had a chance to talk with her on the DU board several years ago. Haven't seen her post in a quite a while.
Duppers
(28,120 posts)I just now posted the same info along with a link to another thread about her mom.
Tragedies like this should never again happen and Control-Z is a soldier in the frontline in the fight to save other women.
I'm so proud she's here.
mrmpa
(4,033 posts)who because of an illegal abortion, orphaned my friend at the age of 11. This was in 1956. My friend is now gone, but I remember all the good she did for her children and women.
Raster
(20,998 posts)Starry Messenger
(32,342 posts)Ohio Joe
(21,756 posts)nolabear
(41,963 posts)*sigh*
slackmaster
(60,567 posts)She's now 78. Anti-choicers were a major factor in her decision to quit the GOP.
WillyT
(72,631 posts)WinstonSmith4740
(3,056 posts)That's one of the triumphs, and unfortunately Achilles Heel, of Roe v Wade. "Back in the day..." almost all women knew someone who had an illegal abortion. Almost all who did were scarred to some degree. Younger women today just don't understand the nightmare this once was, so they don't see the need to be ever vigilant.
KT2000
(20,581 posts)this reality is what the issue was focsued on before Roe v Wade - the women.
Now the issue is focused on men and what they think women should be allowed to do.
fleur-de-lisa
(14,624 posts)Niyad: I hope you don't mind if I add some personal information to your list:
Margaret Williams
July 10, 1911 - July 7, 1932
My maternal grandmother, Margaret Williams, bled to death in her home shortly before her 21st birthday. My mother was 4 at the time and her little sister was 2. My grandfather, Margaret's husband, came home to find his wife dying on the kitchen floor as a result of a 'home' abortion she and a friend attempted. They were devout Catholics and my grandmother was afraid to tell anyone what she had done, so she did nothing. She was from a very poor family of Irish immigrants and she had no one to turn to. They could barely afford to feed their little family of 4, so she tried to end the pregnancy in an effort to keep her family afloat, and ultimately, she ended her own life.
Dora Chapman
Feb 28, 1905 -July 28, 1942
My paternal grandmother, Dora Chapman, died in her home under similar circumstances . . . very poor family with 4 children and another pregnancy. The only difference is that her family was Methodist. She also bled to death in her home after a 'home' abortion because she didn't ask for help in time to save her life. They were poor farmers in Nebraska and could barely feed their own family. They couldn't afford another child.
I have an older sister (who I will not name since she is still living) who was raped about 30 years ago. The rape resulted in a pregnancy. She was afraid to say anything until it was too late for an abortion, and she bore an inter-racial child that was put up for adoption. My sister suffered irreparable emotional damage, not only from the rape, but also from the stigma of carrying her rapists child to term.
It sickens me that we are still having this discussion today. These powerful and privileged male politicians sit in their plush offices and pronounce judgment on women who have suffered through unbelievable circumstances. My grandmothers deserve better. My sister deserves better. Their families deserve better. The decision to abort or carry an unwanted child to term is never taken cavalierly, as these despicable men insinuate.
As long as I live I will fight for a woman's right to choose. I owe it to the grandmother's I never knew. I owe it to my sister. Keep your fucking hands off our bodies!
MrMickeysMom
(20,453 posts)Everything that you said... absolutely correct.
I'm glad you share this because I think we need to really, really, really talk to everyone about this.
Never go back.
niyad
(113,315 posts)human beings they dismiss behind their hatred, but WE can keep their stories alive.
Like so many others who fight for women's rights and reproductive choice, I have been threatened, harassed, and nearly assaulted (this in plain view of a police officer and a reporter), but that has not, and will not, shut me up. I had hoped that we would never have to wear the coat hanger buttons again, but it looks like we have to.
spanone
(135,838 posts)coat hangers
the gop will gleefully take us back to those days
allan01
(1,950 posts)my late mother remembered the back alley abortions and they wernt pretty . thanks for sharing this . how does worring about womans productive rights pave roads, provide jobs , educate our kids in a public school system? do these folk want to go back to a system where their kids pay for public school. librarys courts , yes courts , the judges old cry ," court costs court costs who will pay the court costs"? directly ?this sick platform of theirs will do nothing of the sort. period.
riderinthestorm
(23,272 posts)I know, its not an actual abortion scene - just the familial and physical after-effects of an illegal abortion - but its inclusion is important.
If you have young-ish Rethug family members, its an easy way to bring this into the conversation since most everyone has seen the film, and loves the character who suffers.... I've managed to ease more than a few teenage girls into this discussion with this film.
Back alley abortions and their terrible legacy needs to be brought back into the discussion during these days of Akin and Ryan. We fail to educate our youngsters at our peril. Showing pictures of Geraldine Santoro are appropriate for some but others need to be eased into the horror. We all need to begin these conversations NOW. Women's rights to have their own authority and ownership of their bodies is in severe jeopardy.
LadyHawkAZ
(6,199 posts)I was a year younger than Becky Bell when she died. I remember that very clearly.
.
KnR bookmarked
McCamy Taylor
(19,240 posts)AnneD
(15,774 posts)that went away for a weekend and never came back. She was pregnant and went to have an illegal abortion. Turned out to be the classic back alley butcher. Her family was devastated as were her friends. People forget the numbery of very young girls that died needlessly, the number of women that died trying to responsibly limit their family size, and the number of unwanted unadopted children, generally of color, that wound up in the foster care system.
Having my friend die changed my attitude and radicalized me as a feminist for womens reproductive rights.
It boils down to power and control. Some people can't stand that a woman might have the same opportunities as men and heaven help them if they might have sex without suffering consequences. Women and children have historically suffered in wars, uprisings, etc because they are perceived as a weaker and more vulnerable group.
Frankly this is more get your biscuits in the oven and your buns in the bed mentality. Folks on both sides of the aisle need to get over it.
arely staircase
(12,482 posts)Solly Mack
(90,767 posts)Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)to that barbarism. Some of them even call themselves Democrats.
laundry_queen
(8,646 posts)niyad
(113,315 posts)annabanana
(52,791 posts)Because we don't like to remember, because it was so horrible to contemplate, we have perhaps been remiss in telling the stories
Those of us who remember have a duty, a responsibility to our daughters and their friends to tell those stories. Often. Without euphemism.
WillyT
(72,631 posts)niyad
(113,315 posts)there are many, many more out there.
Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)hifiguy
(33,688 posts)nt
Trailrider1951
(3,414 posts)For my mother, my sisters, my daughters, my grand daughters. NEVER AGAIN!!!!
Quantess
(27,630 posts)Very recent history, where abortion was deemed illegal by the dictator of Romania.
Hello, Romanian orphanages?
niyad
(113,315 posts)Quantess
(27,630 posts)1965: Ceausescu becomes head of Communist Party
1967: Forbids abortion and contraception, leading to huge rise in birth rates
1970s-80s: Number of children in state care rises, reaching more than 100,000
niyad
(113,315 posts)lunatica
(53,410 posts)niyad
(113,315 posts)ago, I thought it was interesting that they would so blatantly show what they were about. apparently, a lot of people just did not get it.