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ROE V. WADE 35 YEARS LATER
Abortion remains a divisive issue
Though debate persists, activists agree it may be time to find a common ground
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Every year, more than 2,000 Dayton-area women have abortions. And every year, hundreds of local men and women protest their right to do so.
The U.S. Supreme Court declared on Jan. 22, 1973 — 35 years ago Tuesday — in the Roe v. Wade case that women have a constitutional right to have abortions. Enough time has passed that every woman now in her childbearing years has always had access to legal abortion.
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Christi Dodson is the executive director of Dayton Right to Life. Pictured in the photographs are clients who attended parenting classes at her offices.
Abortion rights advocate Kathryn Havemann and her dog Bailey at her Dayton home.
Becki J. Brenner is the president & chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio.Latest headlines
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Get latest headlines via RSS feedsAfter Roe, "women didn't need to be afraid anymore," said Becki Brenner, president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio. "They didn't need to hide. I guess you can say they could decide their own destiny."
Christi Dodson, executive director of Dayton Right To Life, said the Roe decision usurped the rights of states to decide the issue. "People are troubled and conflicted (about abortion)," she said. "Roe v. Wade never let us say as a country, as a people, what we really think."
Still, activists on both sides of the debate say Roe is unlikely to be overturned anytime soon.
Prior to Roe, each state had its own laws. Abortion was illegal in Ohio, so women seeking one had to either travel to states like New York with more liberal laws or have an illegal abortion.
"It became abortion shopping," said Kathryn G. Havemann of Washington Twp., an attorney who in 1970 published a pioneering law-review article on abortion that was used by "Jane Roe's" attorneys in their research. In the pre-Roe days, "nobody ever really talked about it, but there was always somebody in the dorm who knew where to get one."
The Roe decision "certainly took abortion out of the back streets and made them more safe for women," said University of Dayton law professor Vernellia Randall. "It wasn't that abortions weren't done before, it's just that nobody but the rich could afford to go where they were legal and safe."
Because the Roe decision hinged on a woman's right to privacy, it's the legal "doorstep" for discussing privacy-related issues from gay rights to government wiretapping, Randall said. "It also has been hugely divisive in our political scene," she said, with some voters using a candidate's abortion stance as a litmus test.
Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio has long supported abortion-rights candidates through a political action committee, and this year Dayton Right to Life has established a PAC to aid state candidates "with a consistent life ethic," Dodson said.
"In a lot of pro-life minds, this is the most important issue," Dodson said. "The feeling in the pro-life movement is, if people aren't guaranteed the right to life, we're going to see a disintegration in respect and dignity of life in other areas down the line."
But while most Americans say they feel strongly about the abortion issue, Gallup polls find they rarely vote only for candidates who share their views. A Gallup poll released Thursday shows abortion ranks near the bottom of Americans' concerns in the 2008 presidential campaign, eclipsed by the war in Iraq and economic matters.
A Gallup poll last year underscored the ambivalence Americans feel about abortion: 53 percent consider themselves "pro-choice," and 42 percent "pro-life," yet 51 percent believe abortion is morally wrong and only 40 percent find it morally acceptable.
Support for Roe v. Wade was strong: 53 percent would leave it in place and 35 percent would overturn it. Yet Gallup found "most Americans support the kind of chipping-around-the-edges limits on abortion that many states have enacted in recent years, and that continue to be promoted in others."
Ohio has added some restrictions on abortion rights, including mandatory counseling, a 24-hour waiting period and parental consent requirements for minors.
"Women deserve to have access to safe abortion care, free from the interference of politicians," National Abortion Federation President Vicki Saporta said in a statement Friday. "Legislative attacks on Roe and a woman's right to choose are all too common in state legislatures."
Brenner, 57, a former nurse who has worked for Planned Parenthood for a decade, said the abortion debate has cooled over the years and incidents of violence against abortion workers are down, although somebody shot out the window of her office in Kansas City in 2000. "Think about coming to work and having a bullet hole in your computer screen," she said. "That's chilling."
Brenner took over the southwest Ohio regional office, which serves 16 counties in the Cincinnati and Dayton areas, in June 2006. Ten health centers serve 65,000 people a year with PAP tests and breast exams, sexually transmitted disease detection and treatment, contraception education and dispensing, and sex education. The office has one abortion clinic, in Cincinnati.
The only Dayton area abortion clinic, the Dayton Women's Health Center at 1401 E. Stroop Road in Kettering, is not affiliated with Planned Parenthood.
Abortion "is a woman's choice. You can't legislate that. It's a medical decision," Brenner said. "I will work very hard to see that if a woman chooses to have an abortion she'll have it in the most quality-driven and safest manner."
In an October report, the Ohio Department of Health said reported complications of abortion are rare, averaging two per 1,000 procedures. But Dodson said complications may go unreported because of the stigma attached to abortion. And, she said, many women suffer post-abortion psychological problems that persist for decades.
Dayton Right To Life, located in an old radiology lab in the former St. Elizabeth Hospital, offers free parenting classes to pregnant women and parents of infants and toddlers. It has a baby pantry that provides free diapers, formula, baby food and clothing to about 1,000 clients a year. It is involved in sex education programs and legislative lobbying. Dodson said Dayton Right to Life has 20,000 members, a small office staff and several hundred active volunteers.
The organization is re-emphasizing the local Black Americans for Life chapter under new director Chandra White-Cummings. Blacks accounted for 35 percent of Ohio abortions, though they make up about 12 percent of the overall population.
"We're here to support and care for a woman. We really try our hardest to show it and not necessarily preach," said Dodson, 38. "We do teach abstinence until marriage. We're not a faith-based organization, but a lot of times that's what brings people to the issue."
Brenner and Dodson agree on one thing: The time may have arrived for the two often-hostile sides to look for common ground.
"People (in both camps) are doing what they think is best," Dodson said. "There may be some issues we're never going to agree on. (But) I think a lot more could be accomplished if we found our commonalities."
