Google our site:

Celebrating Roe v. Wade

Despite an unexpected snowstorm, 75 pro-choice advocates turned out on the 34th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, January 22, 2007, to listen to four panelists talk about life prior to Roe’s decision.

Photo: Panelists discuss the effect Roe v. Wade has had on their lives.

“The Choices We Made and the Connections We Make,” organized by the Maine Choice Coalition, sought to connect generations who came of age before and after the court ruling that overturned all state and federal laws outlawing or restricting abortion. The panel offered a personal look at the horror that took place when otherwise healthy women who wanted to terminate a pregnancy were faced with illegal, unsanitary clinics – or worse. Panelists at the Portland event included:

• ...a physician who witnessed firsthand women with massive infections from botched abortions during his training in New York City.

• ... a woman who fought to obtain contraception at a pharmacy when she was visiting her husband before he shipped out for World War II.

• ... a librarian compelled to seek an abortion in Puerto Rico in 1969 because it was illegal in her state.

• ... a woman who works closely with immigrant women in Maine and is intimately familiar with the horrors of illegal abortion clinics overseas.

Their stories remind us why women need control over whether and when and with whom to parent. They made it clear that choice is never quick nor easy but that thanks to Roe v. Wade and continued vigilance we have those rights.

Following the panel, Sondra Goldschein, a state strategies attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, described her successful efforts in organizing the campaign to overturn a state ban on abortion in South Dakota by referendum. She also outlined other successes achieved during the 2006 elections, such as the defeat of parental notification laws in California and Oregon.

"The Choices We Made & The Connections We Make: Celebrating Roe At 34" was co-sponsored by the University of Southern Maine Women's Studies Program, the USM Women's Resource Center, and the USM Gender Studies Student Organization.

Photo: Pro-Choice activists raise awareness of the Roe anniversary with an old fashioned Burma Shave.

Why is Roe v. Wade important?

With Roe v. Wade, the US Supreme Court established in 1973 that most state laws against abortion violate a constitutional right to privacy under the liberty clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, thus overturning all state and federal laws outlawing or restricting abortion that were inconsistent with the decision. Prior to 1973, abortion was illegal in nearly all states except to save a woman's life or for limited reasons such as preserving the woman's health or in cases of fetal anomaly, rape, or incest. As a result, many women were compelled to seek illegal “back-alley” abortions, often under unsanitary and unsafe conditions, leading to high rates of death and permanent injury. Each year on January 22, pro-choice advocates celebrate the right to control their won child-bearing decisions and give thanks.

What is the Maine Choice Coalition?

The Maine Choice Coalition, convened in 1989, is a non-partisan coalition of 23 organizations whose purpose is to implement a statewide strategy for preserving and promoting the right to privacy in making reproductive choices, with particular emphasis on the right to an abortion. The Coalition works with its member organizations to coordinate legislative advocacy, grassroots organizing, and public education and awareness regarding the preservation of reproductive choice for Maine women.

Join the FPA’s ACTION NETWORK:

Receive periodic emails about current happenings in Maine and nationally and how to be involved.

Get Email Updates

Read our Privacy Notice

Check out our Press Room for the most recent newspaper articles throughout Maine.

Know Your Candidate!

Telephone: 207-772-3841

Links:

NARAL

Abortion Access Project

Know Your Candidate

No New Money