NYT Article - Pre-Roe

Go check out this essay in the NYT about the coat hanger myths. The argument that women will resort to harmful home-methods if abortion is made illegal or more difficult to access is usually shot down by the opposition because there is little hard evidence.

Pre-Roe v. Wade women rarely reported who performed back-alley abortions on them and no one was taking note of the women who ended up dead or severely damaged from self-inflicted abortions. The data we have available to us is anecdotal, through word of mouth, as is much of women's history.

"There I saw and treated almost every complication of illegal abortion that one could conjure, done either by the patient herself or by an abortionist — often unknowing, unskilled and probably uncaring. Yet the patient never told us who did the work, or where and under what conditions it was performed. She was in dire need of our help to complete the process or, as frequently was the case, to correct what damage might have been done.

The patient also did not explain why she had attempted the abortion, and we did not ask. This was a decision she made for herself, and the reasons were hers alone. Yet this much was clear: The woman had put herself at total risk, and literally did not know whether she would live or die.

This, too, was clear: Her desperate need to terminate a pregnancy was the driving force behind the selection of any method available."