After 45 million abortions US thinks again

The 20th anniversary of the 1983 anti-abortion referendum has caused little discussion in Ireland, in stark contrast to the reaction…

The 20th anniversary of the 1983 anti-abortion referendum has caused little discussion in Ireland, in stark contrast to the reaction this year in the US to the 30th anniversary of Roe v Wade, the decision which legalised abortion there, writes Breda O'Brien

The debate in the US may have been helped along by the fact that the "Roe" of Roe v Wade, whose real name is Norma McCorvey, has instituted legal proceedings to reverse the original decision.

It is largely a symbolic gesture, which seeks to use a legal loophole. As a party to the original litigation, Norma McCorvey may petition the court to reopen the original case based on changes in factual conditions and/or changes in the law that make the prior decision "no longer just".

Norma's story is one of deprivation, confusion and a desperate search for meaning which took her into drink and drugs.

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She had lived on the streets on and off since she was 10. In 1969, aged 22, she became pregnant for the third time, found an illegal clinic and was so disgusted by the conditions there that she came outside to vomit.

She was then introduced to two ambitious young lawyers, Sarah Waddington and Linda Coffee, who wanted to overthrow the statute forbidding abortion in Texas. She lied to them, telling them she had been gang-raped while in fact the child had been conceived during consensual sex.

She was poor, badly-educated and, in her own words, stoned most of the time. She was told this was just about Texan abortion laws, and that it would help her to get a safe, legal abortion.

In fact, the case dragged out so long that her baby was born and adopted by the time she read in the papers the stunning news that her case had been taken to the Supreme Court, and that it was responsible for overturning the abortion law in all 50 states.

She began to self-harm, cutting herself with a straight razor, and to sink deeper into substance abuse.

She then began to work in abortion clinics and became, as she puts it, a "poster girl" for the pro-choice lobby. She became disgusted by her life and converted to Catholicism, which has led to her campaign to overturn Roe v Wade.

Her language now is deeply religious, which is off-putting to some, but the underlying message is clear.

"I lied about being raped. I never intended to cause dramatic changes to the abortion law. I am haunted by the fact that 45 million abortions have been performed in those 30 years on 25 million women. I now believe that abortion, instead of liberating women, harms them."

So where do citizens of the United States stand on abortion now? I came across this quote while surfing the Internet: "Even some supporters of abortion rights have referred to abortion as a necessary evil, a bad thing, or a tragedy.

"So, while the majority of Americans support the constitutional right established in Roe, they are also confused, ambivalent, unenthusiastic and, at times, even hostile to the practice of abortion."

A quote from a pro-life website? No, strangely enough, it comes from the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, who are calling for "a new conversation about abortion".

They acknowledge the fact that support for abortion is falling. They say: "For example, one poll found that 53 per cent of new college students said abortion should be legal only in cases of life endangerment, rape or incest - the lowest level for this group in more than two decades. Other studies confirm this general disturbing trend."

The website continues: "Supporters of legal abortion need to challenge the notion that abortion is immoral. This task may not be as daunting as it seems."

Here in Ireland we are continually being told that we are "ambivalent, unenthusiastic and, at times, even hostile to the practice of abortion" because we never became tolerant and open enough to legalise abortion. Strange, then, how in the United States, 45 million abortions on, only a minority are actively enthusiastic, while the majority of pro-choice people remain ambivalent, and a steadily growing minority of young people consider abortion to be wrong in all circumstances. Furthermore, although it is a lucrative profession, few young doctors want to practise in the area of abortion.

Elsewhere on the website mentioned earlier, one woman who is an abortion-provider calls for more openness about the complexity of the issue.

"The pro-choice side will have to admit their ambivalence about the reality of abortion. They will have to forgo clean sound bites for the sometimes messy reality of women's sadness, repeat abortions, late abortions, the fallibility of birth control, and the 'irresponsibility' of women as contraceptors."

She remains totally committed to women's right to terminate new human life, but believes the attempt to whitewash the reality of abortion has failed dismally. In another development, abortion clinics are now counselling women to grieve, and some provide memorial walls.

There is an extraordinary description in a recent issue of Glamour (US) magazine of "pink construction paper hearts" pinned to notice boards in one clinic, carrying messages from the mothers to their aborted babies like: "Goodbye darling. I will always love you."

The response to all of this from one US organisation, Feminists For Life, is radical. Its recent nationwide advertising campaign carries the message "Women deserve better."

Women deserve better than abortion as a solution to a crisis pregnancy. They deserve practical and emotional support so that ending a fragile new life is never the best available solution. It is disappointing to see that the Crisis Pregnancy Agency here in Ireland, set up expressly to lower the number of abortions, remains so politely neutral about abortion, setting it out as one option among others.

It is hard to imagine any government here having the courage to launch a "Women deserve better" campaign.

We hear so much rhetoric about listening to women. Norma McCorvey has a message about abortion, forged from bitter experience as the person whose pseudonym will be for ever synonymous with legal abortion. It's simple.

Abortion is not the hallmark of a civilised, tolerant society, but of one that prefers quick-fix solutions, no matter how harmful they may be in the long term. I wonder who will listen to that?