{"id":8020,"date":"2017-02-13T06:38:09","date_gmt":"2017-02-13T12:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/?p=8020"},"modified":"2022-03-10T14:29:27","modified_gmt":"2022-03-10T20:29:27","slug":"lifetime-experience-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2017\/02\/13\/lifetime-experience-abortion","title":{"rendered":"A Lifetime Of Experience With Abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Let me start by saying the opinions on the topic of abortion<\/a> are mine alone and not necessarily those of any staff at WholeHealth Chicago. For Health Tip readers who have commented that I should not voice political opinions and stick to my work as a doctor, I suggest you glance at any of the websites aimed at physicians themselves. Fully one third of the articles are politically themed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the president overturning Obamacare and the Republicans having nothing to replace it with except a vague, 27-page position paper, we\u2019re facing a serious health crisis over the next few years. Every doctor worth her salt is invested in the outcome. If you\u2019re thinking about unsubscribing, consider instead using the comments section below to voice your opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only definite in any Republican proposal seems to be an egregious lack of concern for women\u2019s health. With the new president ready to nominate a Supreme Court justice who will likely vote to overturn Roe v Wade and recent moves to defund Planned Parenthood and contraception counseling in both the US and other countries (via the Mexico City Policy<\/a>), we get an idea of Trump\u2019s position on the health care needs of women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The confirmation of Health and Human Services director Tom Price, MD, seals the deal. As this Reuters piece notes<\/a>, \u201cDemocrats also criticized Price for his opposition to Obamacare, his ideas about restructuring the Medicare program for the elderly and disabled, and his opposition to Planned Parenthood, an organization that provides abortions and other affordable healthcare and education services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe what anyone does with her body is her own business. You don\u2019t want to take statins? That\u2019s your business. A Japanese Yakuza cutting off his own finger<\/a>? His choice, not mine. Goth teen wanting a Vermeer tattooed on her back? Not my concern. A woman who wants to terminate a pregnancy should be able to make that decision and have a safe, legal abortion. It\u2019s not the business of elderly Caucasians in the White House, Congress, or Supreme Court, and it\u2019s certainly not the business of any religion telling other people how to live their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historical perspective<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Looking at the history of abortion over the past two centuries, you sense it\u2019s all about power and control. Whether it\u2019s men, government, or religion, abortion opposition is an issue of dominance, and that can work both ways. Consider the fact that a large percentage of abortions occur because of male pressure to abort<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the 19th century, women had plenty of abortions. Some occurred because women were simply unable to care for the huge families created during times of zero birth control and a husband\u2019s \u201centitlement\u201d to sex. Then and well into the 20th century, there were not only abortion opponents, but also strong hostility to women\u2019s suffrage and plenty of opposition to black voting rights, which sadly continues to this day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were equally strong positions against birth control. How-to birth control books were classified as pornography and burned. Although plenty of professional abortionists were available throughout the 19th century and up to Roe v. Wade, they were rarely caught, fined, or jailed unless a botched procedure resulted in a woman\u2019s death. Here\u2019s an informative article about abortion in the 19th century<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, if\/when Roe v Wade is overturned, in Illinois both the physician and her patient could face prison time as an old law rears its ugly head (though legislators are currently working on a bill to ensure this doesn\u2019t occur<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The more you read about abortion and birth control, the more you appreciate that it is indeed a matter of power, any steps possible to keep women in their place. The language used against abortion during the 19th century sounds very much like the opposition language to the (failed) 1973 Equal Rights Amendment. Because the ERA proposed including in the US Constitution the right of a woman to have an abortion, strong anti-abortion voices where among those who most vehemently opposed it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the 20th century, up to the 1973 passage of Roe v Wade, it was illegal for a woman to have an abortion and for a doctor to perform one. Yet certainly many women terminated unwanted pregnancies and plenty of doctors performed the terminations. I don\u2019t remember any Illinois doctor or patient ever being jailed, but are you aware that many states could jail women if it were discovered she\u2019d had an abortion? This lengthy but illuminating link comes from the book When Abortion Was a Crime<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The surge in pro-life dialogue began relatively recently. As the feminist movement grew in the 1960s, using anti-abortion language to keep a woman in her place began to lose its effect. It really took Roe v Wade for the term \u201cright-to-life\u201d to become a rallying cry. But regardless how gruesome the language or imagery (check out the chilling 1970s movie \u201cWhatever Happened to the Human Race?\u201d<\/a>), at the heart of the pro-life movement is control over women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lessons from a life<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s now a lifetime later and I\u2019d like to share some of my own experiences and lessons along the way. Spoiler alert: I am, and will remain to my dying gasp, vehemently pro-choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1950s, from age 9 to 18, I worked in my father\u2019s south side drugstore. Even though I was quite young, pregnant women who knew having another child was impossible would ask for something that could bring on their period. Later, my father explained what a period was, though not its relationship to pregnancy. I likely unwittingly took part in numerous abortion attempts, selling this homeopathic product <\/a>and the herbal bitter apple compound shown below (the label saved from my father\u2019s drugstore), both purchased by women who were hoping to abort.
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Knowing now the contents of these products, I\u2019m pretty certain not only that no one was ever hurt, but also that no successful terminations ever occurred. In all this, I was as emotionally involved as if I were selling Alka-Seltzer. (Today, some pro-life enthusiast would probably take steps to have my father arrested for child abuse.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And oh, yes, by about 13 or so I did understand what I was selling and a couple of years later when one of my high school friends was convinced he\u2019d gotten his girlfriend \u201cin trouble,\u201d I stuffed one box each of Bitter Apple and Humphrey\u2019s into my jacket and suggested she try them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before Roe v Wade, abortions were illegal, but like much else in America safe abortions were readily available if the family had money. The pregnant girl would disappear for a few days and return a little pale but freshly \u201cchaste.\u201d (Not infrequently, she\u2019d return sporting a bandage over the bridge of her new Gentile nose, a surgical rite of passage for middle class Jewish girls that legitimized an absence from school.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pregnant girls without family money had one of three choices:<\/p>\n\n\n\n