Abortion case erodes over time
Posted on 01/17/2003 3:23:14 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
Abortion case erodes over time
After 30 years, attorney in Roe vs. Wade still defending the decision
01/17/2003
AUSTIN - In 1973, Sarah Weddington's hair was light brown, her legal career was in early bloom and she was certain that her Roe vs. Wade case had forever and irreversibly legalized abortion.
"I thought it had been written in concrete," she said recently, her gray hair pulled tight into a bun.
The idea that she'd still be defending the 7-2 U.S. Supreme Court decision 30 years later would have struck her as preposterous.
"And if you said I'd be on a precipice where the victories of Roe are about to be overturned or undermined, I would have been tempted to laugh. And yet, that's exactly where we are," Ms. Weddington said.
She is not laughing. Instead, she foresees what was once concrete is turning to sand.
Roe vs. Wade began when an woman named in the suit as Jane Roe sued Dallas County District Attorney Henry Wade. The goal was to prohibit him from filing charges against her if she had an abortion.
Wednesday is the 30th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision, and at this juncture, abortion rights advocates and opponents agree on certain points: President Bush is making strides through appointments and executive orders to make abortions harder to obtain; the GOP Congress will support him in these efforts; and the Republican-dominated state Legislature has the clearest path to passing abortion-limiting provisions than ever before.
"I think there will be significant protections restored in the next six months in Texas," said Elizabeth Graham, associate director of Texas Right to Life Committee.
Eventually, she added, "We will win the war on abortion."
For the immediate future, the largest anti-abortion association in the state will pursue an agenda that has been stymied in past sessions. There is greater optimism for the outcome now that the GOP controls the Legislature for the first time in 131 years, she said.
In addition, Republican Gov. Rick Perry has said that he expects an anti-abortion bill to land on his desk, and barring any surprises, it would be his intent to sign it.
For Peggy Romberg, executive director of the Women's Health and Family Planning Association of Texas, the session will be the most difficult she has ever faced.
"Never since 1973 have we had a situation where the governor, lieutenant governor and speaker are all aggressively anti-choice," Ms. Romberg said.
Dueling polls
The two women believe the majority of Texans believe in their positions and point to different polls to underscore it. Ms. Graham said more than 80 percent of Texans favor some restrictions on abortion. Ms. Romberg points to a poll, released Thursday, that shows 84 percent of Texans believe abortion is a decision best left to a woman, her doctor, her family and her god.
Ms. Graham said her group is devoting its resources this session to bills aimed at protecting women from the abortion industry and that underscore the sanctity of life.
| Anti-abortion group's goals | |
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The first on their list is a comprehensive ban on human cloning.
The second would establish a 24-hour waiting period for women seeking abortions, as well as mandate they be given information about alternatives and told of the risks associated with abortion.
The third issue would allow an unborn child to be treated as a second victim in cases where a criminal act against a woman also causes the loss of her pregnancy.
The group will not seek to reopen the issue of parental notification, passed in 1999, which mandates that women younger than 18 must tell a parent before obtaining an abortion. Changing that law to require a parent to sign a written consent is not part of the group's legislative to-do list, Ms. Graham said. She said teenage pregnancies and abortions have dropped since the law was enacted.
Ms. Romberg said the legislative agenda of the Right to Life Committee is to drive up the costs of abortion and to snuff out its availability. "A right is only a right if you can exercise it," she said.
Limited providers
Abortion is limited by the reality that only 15 counties have abortion providers, she said.
Of the informed consent bill, Ms. Romberg said, "It sets up the assumption that women don't think about this before they present [to a doctor] - and that's absurd," Ms. Romberg said.
She said every medical procedure, including abortion, already requires informed consent.
"If you put in a 24-hour waiting period, she's going to have to take two days off from work, if she has to travel, it will mean a hotel, it will cost more money. It's designed to delay and drive up the cost," Ms. Romberg said.
Ms. Graham said the "reflection period" makes sense because there are few, if any, other serious medical situations where a person walks into a clinic, requests a procedure and has it performed the same day.
Of the bill that would give the fetus standing as a crime victim, Ms. Romberg said it is aimed at establishing rights for the unborn.
Instead, she said abortion-rights advocates have said they would join any effort to enhance penalties against a person who harms the pregnancy of a woman in the commission of a crime. The anti-abortion people have refused the invitation, Ms. Romberg said.
Ms. Graham said Texas Right to Life wants to take steps to bring awareness in areas where it believes there is public support. These measures are not a sweeping overturn of Roe vs. Wade, but she said she believes that will come in time as the anti-abortion rights movement reaches out to more people.
Ms. Weddington said abortion opponents are being smart: Instead of a frontal assault that might alarm voters, they are unraveling the rights at the fringes.
"After 30 years, it's [the right to an abortion] become something that's too easy to take for granted," she said. "The fact is freedom of choice is not free. We're going to have to work for it."
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They do all the above to people who want to buy a handgun in California.
But I think they should regulate abortion to extinction. Keep putting more and more restrictions on it until no one will want to get one anymore because they will have to go through a mile of paperwork and red tape.
Ah, push polls!
Interesting that even when they're pushing their butchery, the pro-aborts couldn't bring themselves to capitalize "god." Maybe they were thinking of Moloch.
She's written at length about the abortion she had when she was 22. I think that was her only child.
16. Women should not be allowed on juries where the accused is a stud.
deceived her own client? how so?
Yep, some of Rush's most timeless work there!Yeah, they are great. My brother is a BIG Rush fan and I'm going to send him those - even though the chances are he's seen it already...
BTW your web site is way cool, Meek :)
And thanks !
Reporter is careful not to mention that Weddington's client (the original Roe, McCorvey) not only now thinks the case was wrongly decided, but says that Weddington deceived her.Thanks for the info. I did a Google Search for Roe vs Wade "McCorvey" and found this jewel there. Very interesting. Here is an excerpt. Though it doesn't elaborate on deception, it does show McCorvey's conversion to a Pro-Lifer...
PS: I'm thinking of posting this on FR just for the record. Coming up on the anniversary of the decision, I think it would be very timely, etc.
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1998/roe.wade/stories/roe.profile/
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Who is 'Jane Roe'?
Anonymous no more, Norma McCorvey no longer supports abortion rights
From CNN Interactive Writer Douglas S. Wood(CNN) -- Norma McCorvey won't be celebrating the 25th anniversary of the historic Roe vs. Wade decision that legalized abortion.
McCorvey is "Jane Roe," the pseudonym she assumed to remain anonymous as the lead plaintiff in the case that legalized abortion in the United States.
"I'm very sad (about the anniversary)," she told CNN Interactive in a telephone interview. "But this year, I've got so much to do, I don't have time to sit down and be sad."
Once an abortion-rights supporter, the 50-year-old McCorvey has switched sides: She's now a vocal anti-abortion activist. She has started a ministry called Roe No More to fight against abortion rights with the aim of creating a mobile counseling center for pregnant women in Dallas.
'I am Roe'
She began her association with one of the United States' most contentious and volatile sociopolitical issues in 1970, when she became the lead plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit filed to challenge the strict anti-abortion laws in Texas.
The case was appealed to the Supreme Court, which handed down its controversial ruling on January 22, 1973. The decision legalized the right to an abortion in all 50 states and sparked a political debate that remains charged to this day.
However, McCorvey, who was 21 when the case was filed and was on her third pregnancy, never had an abortion and gave birth to a girl, who was given up for adoption.
McCorvey went public with her identity in the 1980s and wrote a book about her life titled "I Am Roe: My Life, Roe v. Wade, and Freedom of Choice."
In the book, McCorvey, a ninth-grade dropout, describes a tough life, explaining that she suffered physical and emotional abuse as a child, spent some time in reform school in Gainesville, Texas, and was raped as a teen-ager. She was later beaten by a husband whom she married at age 16. She also tells of her alcohol and drug abuse, and experiences with lovers of both sexes.
Her first child, Melissa, was raised by her mother; her second child was raised by the father, and the couple agreed that McCorvey would never contact her.
She drifted through a series of dead-end jobs, including work as a bartender and a carnival barker. Once she went public with her story, she worked in several clinics where abortions were performed and did some public speaking, garnering publicity and a little bit of celebrity.
But in 1995, it all changed.
Abortion is not right and should be outlawed just as cold blooded murder is against the law.
It's his agenda.
Equating the right to keep and bear arms with the "right" to kill unborn children is one of the ways he attempts to discredit the RKBA.
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