What's going on in the courts?

This book is important because of the court appointments being made by Bush right now. See the planned parenthood page on these very sexist candidates Bush is proposing for court seats. Remember that many of our supreme court justices are very close to stepping down. If he were to repeat this practice in the Supreme Court, what could this mean for women. Remember, we are not just talking about the right to abort, but about a woman's right to determine her future. There is so much tied up in reproductive rights and so much that we have gained once the men lost the right to keep us barefoot and pregnant.

http://www.saveroe.com/content/index.php?pid=42

Now I shy from supporting planned parenthood in my posts because I think the right has done a great job of muddying the message they try to send and that is that a woman has a choice in her destiny, and all that implies. The right has made us believe they simply perform abortions, they talk women into abortions and they promote sexual promiscuity. Well, PP is run by humans, and because of that, I'm sure that in a few offices, you will hear these messages. In reality, the organization is providing reproductive freedom. The organization is able to do as much to teach a woman about *all* of her choices as to just provide abortions.

They do their homework on the law and they are a good source of the information I need for this novel.

My Reading List

This list is of books I have found references to regarding the issue of abortion rights.

"I Am Roe: My Life, Roe v. Wade, and Freedom of Choice"

"Won by Love" Norma McCorvey

Ciderhouse Rules, John Irving

The Cost of "Choice": Women Evaluate the Impact of Abortion

Separate Roads to Feminism : Black, Chicana, and White Feminist Movements in America's Second Wave, Benita Roth

The Politics of Fertility Control: Family Planning & Abortion Policies in the American States by Deborah R. McFarlane, Kenneth J. Meier

Question of Choice, A, Sarah Weddington
The legal status of homemakers in Texas by Sarah Ragle Weddington

The MISCONCEIVER : A Novel by Lucy Ferriss
Act of Godby Susan R. Sloan
The Woman in the River: A Case of Abortion by James McKinley

I am Roe just came in at the library. Funny, the Tewksbury library has very little on abortion rights. I'll be posting reviews and information on these books as I get them and read them through.

Why am I doing this?

The website for the ERA amendment quotes Jeb Bush, younger brother to our somewhat dimwhitten president:

Other opponents - including Gov. Bush - argue that they support equality for women but believe the ERA is passé at a time that women are making advancements – a stance that some Republicans believe is a mainstream view held by many women who will continue to vote for GOP candidates.

(Florida GOP divided over new push to ratify ERA
Loss of female voters feared if party opposes amendment
by Peter Wallsten (pwallsten@herald.com)Miami Herald Monday, April 7, 2003)

While I disagree with the sentiment that the ERA vote is passe, I do agree that the view is a mainstream one held by many women who will continue to vote for GOP candidates.
The ERA is bundled up with bra burning, and pot smoking and long hair and bell-bottoms. Little understood by post baby-boomers like me and my peers, the idea of women needing a constitutional amendment to protect our rights seems like overkill.

It's because we have forgotten what the world was like before Roe v. Wade. The conservative party has done a great job of selling us on the idea that Roe, and Weddington and Coffee were just a bunch of self serving baby killers. That was all the whole ruling was about; selfishness and murder.

In my heart I knew it was about more, but until I began this research, I had no idea how far and wide it reached. I was just becoming cognizant that the only support for pregnant moms in supporting their pregnancies was supplied through the Catholic church. It was in mass one day that I thought, if abortion was illegal, would this be available to these women? The answer was obvious. It would be no more available to these women than it was 30 years ago.

Yep, they might be able to take a bus to some remote city to be "cared for" in a home for poorly brought up girls. The choice to keep that baby would not be theirs. The choice as to where that baby ended up would not be theirs.

Today on the news, a story of a woman who left the hospital just hours after giving birth and leaving her baby behind.

Constitutional history

Just a recap of the constitution and how rights were given to women and minorities:

Emancipation of slaves, January 1, 1863

Amendment XIV - Citizenship rights. Ratified 7/9/1868.
The 14th was designed to ensure that all former slaves were granted automatic United States citizenship.

Amendment XV - Race no bar to vote. Ratified 2/3/1870.
Though a noble idea, it had little practical effect for quite some time, as the Southern states found myriad ways to intimidate blacks to keep them from voting.

Amendment XIX - Women's suffrage. Ratified 8/18/1920.
While the right to vote was not constitutionally barred for blacks, it was for Women. By using the wording male in the 3rd provision of the 14th amendment, ensuring the vote for men, it implied that the vote was not constitutionally ensured for women. This is why women who tried to vote in NY were arrested. Would they have been beaten up like blacks who tried to vote once the poll tax was barred? Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, it's a shame our country had to pass constitutional privileges instead of just recognizing the right.

Amendment XXIV - Poll tax barred. Ratified 1/23/1964
So the blacks got the vote, but the cunning southerners (and I'm sure a few in the North as well) wanted to keep them from voting. So now we have to ask them to play nice in the sandbox again.

Giving Blacks the unbarred right to vote was the last barrier, at least for the men. Whites in power knew that with the vote, blacks could correct laws that were discriminatory and they could vote out the politicians who hurt their community. They could also vote in candidates who would fight to better their community and provide them with economic freedoms. They are a population that should not be messed with. ...unless they don't exercise their right to vote.

That doesn't mean the fight was over though. Countless cases had to be brought before the supreme court and the regional courts to interpret the constitution to the thick headed old boy network. They just don't get it.

In 1973, Roe v. Wade also took away the last barrier to power for women. But again, if we don't vote, we will lose that right and lose our power.

Both blacks and women have equal rights on paper. But in reality, the fight still continues.

Jane Roe

Most of this taken from a CNN article on Norma McCorvey.

Of course, an exploration of Roe V. Wade could not be complete without some information about who Jane Roe was and is. There's a book in that story too.

Norma McCorvey was a 21 yr old single (divorced) woman who had been brought up in a far from functional family and married at the age of 16. She was needed for the class action suit as a pregnant woman who wanted an abortion; to illustrate the effects of a pregnancy on a woman's life.

Whether she really understood what she would be up against is hard to say. Whether anyone involved knew what she would be up against is hard to say. Given the testimony by Sarah Weddington regarding the status of women's rights to earn a fair living at the time, it seems like such a far off dream compared to today.

I need to look into what years various arguments were made or various changes occurred to make all that history. DH and I were surprised at the state of things described by Weddington in the testimony though. Just support of my idea that we have forgotten what Roe V. Wade is really about over the past 30+ years.

Anyway, back to Norma/Jane. Did she know that she would have to carry this baby to term to participate in this trial? I can't imagine that she would have been naive enough to think that the trial would end soon enough for her to abort. I think statements were made in one article that I read that it was too late even when she went in front of the Texas Judiciary. The baby was born before the second hearing of the supreme court, certainly.

And what of that baby now? Does the offspring know the court case surrounding its birth? What an interesting story there?

So Norma is now a Catholic fighting for the rights of the unborn. In some ways, she is saving more babies and women because of the law. She works in a rescue mission helping girls make the choice to have those babies. A far better support than anything that was available to her before Roe V. Wade. Her conversion to Christianity happened in 1995. Quite recently. She has written two books that I need to look into: "I Am Roe: My Life, Roe v. Wade, and Freedom of Choice," and "Won by Love" the story written after her baptism. Would be very interesting to read of this before and after.

So her take now is that she was used by the lawyers Weddington and Coffee. They are described as fresh out of law school. Who would give a supreme court argument to a couple of fresh-outs? Did this reflect the lack of respect for what they were arguing for? Was this just something these two starry eyed lawyers went through law school specifically to do? Another book, right there. Very interesting. Did they have any guidance from more seasoned lawyers? Certainly, as inexperienced lawyers, they would have put ego a bit before the care and nurturing of this 9th grade drop out divorcee from Texas. Class being what it is and women lawyers being as rare as they would have been in 1973.

So, I need to get more info on Weddington, Coffee and why it took till well after 1973 for the 14th amendment to be applied to women.

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Interesting side note: Spell check on Blogger.com suggests to replace Weddington with Hedonistic.

Roe v. Wade

Why:
According to MRS. WEDDINGTON in arguing the first case of Roe v. Wade, December 13, 1971
The State cannot deny the effect that this law has on the women of Texas. Certainly there are problems regarding even the use of contraception. Abortion now, for a woman, is safer than childbirth. In the absence of abortions--or legal medically safe abortions--women often resort to the illegal abortions, which certainly carry risks of death, all the side effects such as severe infections, permanent sterility, all the complications that result. And, in fact, if the woman is unable to get either a legal abortion or an illegal abortion in our State, she can do a self-abortion, which is certainly, perhaps, by far the most dangerous. And that is no crime. ...

... Texas, for example, it appears to us, would not allow any relief at all, even in situations where the mother would suffer perhaps serious physical or mental harm. There is certainly a great question about it. If the pregnancy would result in the birth of a deformed or defective child, she has no relief. Regardless of the circumstances of conception, whether it was because of rape, incest, whether she is extremely immature, she has no relief. I think it's without question that pregnancy to a woman can completely disrupt her life. Whether she's unmarried; whether she's pursuing an education; whether she's pursuing a career; whether she has family problems; all of the problems of personal and family life, for a woman, are bound up in the problem of abortion. For example, in our State there are many schools where a woman is forced to quit if she becomes pregnant. In the City of Austin that is true. A woman, if she becomes pregnant, and is in high school, must drop out of regular education process. And that's true of some colleges in our State. In the matter of employment, she often is forced to quit at an early point in her pregnancy. She has no provision for maternity leave. She has.. she cannot get unemployment compensation under our laws, because the laws hold that she is not eligible for employment, being pregnant, and therefore is eligible for no unemployment compensation. At the same time, she can get no welfare to help her at a time when she has no unemployment compensation and she's not eligible for any help in getting a job to provide for herself. There is no duty for employers to rehire women if they must drop out to carry a pregnancy to term. And, of course, this is especially hard on the many women in Texas who are heads of their own households and must provide for their already existing children. And, obviously, the responsibility of raising a child is a most serious one, and at times an emotional investment that must be made, cannot be denied. So, a pregnancy to a woman is perhaps one of the most determinative aspects of her life. It disrupts her body. It disrupts her education. It disrupts her employment. And it often disrupts her entire family life. And we feel that, because of the impact on the woman, this certainly--in as far as there are any rights which are fundamental--is a matter which is of such fundamental and basic concern to the woman involved that she should be allowed to make the choice as to whether to continue or to terminate her pregnancy.

Authors Note:
Makes you wonder: Had Roe v. Wade not been decided as it was, would women today enjoy the equality that we have today? We cannot be kicked out of school for a pregnancy now. In fact, many schools help a pregnant teen get through classes. We can collect unemployment if we are layed off while pregnant. Of course, while pregnant, we don't get maternity leave even if our unemployment runs out at a really unfortunate time.

She continued:
I think the Fourteenth Amendment is equally an appropriate place, under the rights of persons to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. [sic] I think that in as far as "liberty" is meaningful, that liberty to these women would mean liberty from being forced to continue the unwanted pregnancy.

Intro

Over the next year, I hope to do lots of research towards a novel I'd like to write for nanowrimo next year. The idea being that if I do the research over the next few months, all I have to do is write next year.

An integral theme of the novel is life for women before and after roe v. wade. So my research will be about reproductive rights laws, pop culture of the 60s 70s and 80s and the stories of real women who have been forced to make the choice to keep a pregnancy or abort. Hopefully, I can portray in the novel the intricacies of this social change and how difficult the question of reproductive rights is for women, society, and government.