‘I was blindfolded. No one spoke a word.’ Seattle-area women talk about abortion before Roe

Did you have an illegal abortion before 1973, when the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade? Soundside, KUOW’s noon show, asked for your stories, and a dozen of you left voicemails, sharing first-hand experiences. Transcriptions of those voicemails are below, and have been edited for clarity.

I was a 20-year-old nursing student in 1972.

The very first patient I had was a 15-year-old girl who became severely septic from a self-induced abortion with a coat hanger.

The girl died in my care. Two months later, I was raped and became pregnant. I was lucky enough to find a provider willing to do an abortion.

Two different stories, different endings to a similar story. I'm furious and saddened that I will end my nursing career with witnessing the same abuse, the same dismissal of women and their families.

In 1964, I was living in various places in Europe.

I turned 18 in Paris. I was supposed to meet up with a friend from London and hitchhike to India. Suddenly I discovered, to my amazement, that I was pregnant. One stupid mistake changed the direction of my travels.

I was nauseous all the time and miserable. Some people I met said to find an ivy twig, soak it in alcohol, and poke it into my cervix. Luckily I didn’t follow that advice. Instead I wrote a philosophical letter to my parents back in New York and they replied, “come home.”

In those days you couldn’t just look in the Yellow Pages for abortionists. So my mother’s network of women friends rushed to help and gave us the name of a doctor who could recommend me to “someone.”

I had to say that I was less than two months pregnant, but actually I was nearly three.

The nameless telephone voice told us what to do. We were to meet at Newark Airport with $1,000 in cash. (My father had to borrow the money from a friend.)

I would wear my brown dress with green leaves printed on it, and stand in a place near the door at one end of the airport. On the arranged day, I waited, with my parents within sight but standing away from me. A woman came and asked me my name and if I had the money. I handed her the envelope and we walked out to a waiting car where I was blindfolded. No one spoke a word.

The car drove around and around in very large circles all over Newark. At last we came to a tall apartment building and went up a service elevator to a large apartment. I was told to undress and given a shot to make me sleepy and for pain and left to rest on a cot. They said if I went to sleep it would be better.

But I wasn’t the only patient, so by the time it was my turn, I was wide awake and the shot had worn off. I was put on an examination table with my feet in stirrups. Then they tied my hands to the side of the table. When I screamed in agony, they gagged me so I couldn’t make a sound, and told me if I struggled, the knife would cut me up. Anyone can imagine the pain; words are useless here. When it was over, I had to quickly dress and was left in a living room with about eight other young women, all looking rather pale. No one looked around, no one spoke.

Eventually, my name was called, and off I went back to the airport.

By this time, my poor parents were frantic and ready to call the police. Instead of an hour, I had been gone nearly three hours. The next day, I began to bleed heavily and had to go to

the doctor, who set up the abortion. It was dangerous to go to anyone else.

In one respect I was lucky. My parents helped me in every way they could. I can’t imagine being a teenager without money and having to do this alone.

Years later, when my husband and I really wanted to have a child, I only had miscarriages.

Birth control should be given freely to anyone who asks for it, and when needed, abortion should be safe and legal.

I was born in 1949. I got pregnant in 1965 or 1966.

I was 16.

My father was an Irish immigrant, alcoholic. I guess what I'm trying to say is the circumstances that people get pregnant under are not pleasant; they're heartbreaking, and not to have a choice was horrific. Nobody talked about adoption then, and there were no child protection services for children like myself, an only child.

I feel like I was a feral child. I kind of raise myself but was sexually abused from about 5 years onward, probably to when I ended up getting pregnant. For women to have to be abused. come from homes that are horrific. And these things happen to them because they don't even know how to not let them happen or how to say no, and then to be forced.

I'm an adoptee, and I was born in 1964 before Roe.

My birth mother was a nurse, and she could have gotten an abortion. But she went to an unwed mothers home, where it was Catholic, and where the nuns would keep her up at night praying over her body, because she was a sinner.

This is about women and controlling them. My mother went through horrible things in order to give me up for adoption. She shouldn't have had to.

Am I glad I'm alive? I mean – if I had died in utero, would I know? These are existential decisions that each one of us has to make from ourselves. And women should not be treated like nothing other than birthing vessels to make their life worse.

I was a college student in 1972 when I got pregnant.

I went to Planned Parenthood, and they told me I could get a legal abortion in the state where I was, but I had to tell a psychiatrist that I was mentally unstable and would commit suicide if forced to have the baby. It was a dehumanizing experience, but I knew I was not equipped to be a mother at that point in my life.

The first thing I did after graduating and getting a job was to volunteer at the local Planned Parenthood, because I was so grateful to that organization. They saved my life, or at least the life I wanted to live. I don't understand why anyone would want to make what is already a very hard, sad and personal decision even harder.

I had an abortion in 1972.

I married in 1968, right out of college, to the preacher's son. We were very active in environmental issues and joined the local zero-population-growth group. We were quite sure we didn't want to have children.

I was taking birth control, and the birth control failed, and we became pregnant. All abortions were illegal at that time.

By the time that I found myself pregnant, I was coming to realize that this man was not really a good guy. The thought of tying myself to him in a co-parenting role – divorce was almost unimaginable back then – I just knew that I couldn't raise a child with this guy. He wasn't willing to work. I had a job that was fulfilling and satisfying to me. It just wasn't right for us to have this child. So I went to Fred City, South Dakota, and had an abortion.

I felt grief and shame and relief. After that, our relationship crumbled somewhat. He had an affair, and we divorced. And he subsequently led a rather degenerate life and ended up threatening a woman with a gun and going to prison for 20 years. I have had many friends say thank goodness, you got out of that marriage. It was absolutely a life saving event for me.

I want to tell the story about my very good friend.

In 1970, we were both 16. I had a big party while my parents were out of town, she became pregnant in one of the upstairs bedrooms. It was the first time she'd ever had sex.

Fortunately, her parents were well-off financially, and also in terms of being more liberal than some, and gave her choices. She flew to San Francisco to get an abortion. She has done very well in her life. She probably couldn't have given the child up for adoption, or raised a child when she was still 16.

I'm gonna rant a little bit about my cousin who lives in Texas, a very wealthy woman, and she thinks that abortion is an abomination. Well, I said, so don't have one. And why are you going to take it away from other women to choose? Don't you know that that is just going to cause more unwanted children to be born?

Back in 1968, I was trying to get an abortion.

Of course, it was impossible at that time and I went through very traumatic experiences. One was that I was basically sexually assaulted by the doctor who I had been told could possibly give me an abortion.

I am devastated by this de-evolution, going backwards, regressing. I feel very strongly that women shouldn't have to go through what I went through. Women shouldn't have to go through anything except to be able to get a safe abortion if they need it, if they want it, if it's in their best interest. I certainly don't want any woman to have to go through what I went through.

Thanks to Cindy, Mary, Marie, Marilyn, Augie, Patty, Brenda, Betsy, Essie, for sharing your stories.