2008 Woodie Awards
Remembering Roe
Issue date: 1/23/07 Section: Commentary
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To the Editor:
It has been 34 years since the Jan. 22, 1973 landmark ruling on the case that legalized abortion for American women, Roe v. Wade. In the 34 years since the ruling anti-choice advocates have continued to chip away at our freedom of choice. The most notorious of these decisions was the Hyde Amendment (1976) which prohibited use of Federal Medicaid for abortions, resulting almost immediately in the death of Rosie Jimenez, a 27-year-old single mother who refused to use her scholarship money for the procedure, instead forced to seek out a back-alley abortion which left Jimenez's daughter without a mother. We are told that abortion has killed one-third of our generation while the number of women who died before the legalization of abortion never comes up.
There are many who believe that once abortion is outlawed the anti-choice side will be satisfied and cease their activities. If you believe this then you are seriously mistaken. Anti-choice advocates also seek to deny women the right to Emergency Contraception and birth control itself. Roe v. Wade and the atmosphere from which it arose was about much more than the right to a safe, legal, and accessible abortion for all women who needed it. It was about the idea that women and men should have the ability to make their own decisions about their bodies in regards to sexual activity and reproductive health.
With this in mind, I ask the student body to take a moment today to think about what Roe v. Wade and the movement which helped its passage has meant for all of us (even without our sometimes realizing it): free condoms at Health Services and on your RA's door? Access to birth control? Safe-sex education? Affordable reproductive health services? You can thank the same people who fought for Roe.
Emily Todd
Students for Choice
It has been 34 years since the Jan. 22, 1973 landmark ruling on the case that legalized abortion for American women, Roe v. Wade. In the 34 years since the ruling anti-choice advocates have continued to chip away at our freedom of choice. The most notorious of these decisions was the Hyde Amendment (1976) which prohibited use of Federal Medicaid for abortions, resulting almost immediately in the death of Rosie Jimenez, a 27-year-old single mother who refused to use her scholarship money for the procedure, instead forced to seek out a back-alley abortion which left Jimenez's daughter without a mother. We are told that abortion has killed one-third of our generation while the number of women who died before the legalization of abortion never comes up.
There are many who believe that once abortion is outlawed the anti-choice side will be satisfied and cease their activities. If you believe this then you are seriously mistaken. Anti-choice advocates also seek to deny women the right to Emergency Contraception and birth control itself. Roe v. Wade and the atmosphere from which it arose was about much more than the right to a safe, legal, and accessible abortion for all women who needed it. It was about the idea that women and men should have the ability to make their own decisions about their bodies in regards to sexual activity and reproductive health.
With this in mind, I ask the student body to take a moment today to think about what Roe v. Wade and the movement which helped its passage has meant for all of us (even without our sometimes realizing it): free condoms at Health Services and on your RA's door? Access to birth control? Safe-sex education? Affordable reproductive health services? You can thank the same people who fought for Roe.
Emily Todd
Students for Choice
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