30th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade, January 22, 2003
FIVE STORY IDEAS ON ABORTION

Ever since the Supreme Court's landmark Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, granting women in the United States the right to decide if and when to have children, abortion has continued to be hotly contested.  Indeed, Americans have come to expect a debate characterized by acrimony and outright physical violence.  Judging from the public debate, abortion is as divisive an issue as any that has confronted the American political system.  Pro-choice and pro-life advocates, it appears, share no common ground and there is scant if any real communication between the two sides.  This clash of absolutes does not, however, accurately reflect the views of many "ordinary" Americans.

In an ongoing independent project called "Abortion: Voices from Across America," an interview team traveling around the U.S. has found that a vast majority of those interviewed resist the absolutist views that characterize the public debate.  These "ordinary" voices, and especially those of women who have had abortions themselves, are strikingly absent from the public debate.  With some 1.3 million abortions taking place every year in this country alone, it is perhaps time to listen to what they have to say.  Below are a few excerpts from interviews conducted as part of "Abortion: Voices from Across America."

Elaine, a 29-year-old accountant from Texas says:  "I had an abortion when I was 16.  Nobody knew but my boyfriend.  We were using a condom and a sponge.  The condom broke.  It was the second time I had sex.  It was Valentine's Day.  We didn't tell anybody, because we both felt like 'this is a situation that none of our friends would get in.' It's the only time I have ever stolen.  I stole money from my brother, so that I could have the abortion.  It was pretty horrible.  Just everything about it was bad." 

Despite her own negative experience, her views on abortion are both complex and nuanced: "I don't think abortion is wrong.  It's a huge moral decision, but it doesn't need to be legislated.  It's a public debate, but it's really, really private.  I feel like there is not enough out there in the ambiguous camp.  The people who are most confident about voicing their opinions are always the people who have their minds all made up.  It's so easy for them.  Those are the people whose voices get heard because they put up a big 10x20 poster of aborted fetuses. I'd say I'm pro-choice. I hate to come down on one side or the other, but pro-choice is great. You are saying there is a choice there, and it sort of leaves it up to the person, which I like."

Sophiline, a 35-year-old classical dancer from California, talks about her abortion in similarly nuanced terms, showing that it is possible to have respect both for life and for a woman's choice: "I grew up in Cambodia.  I have been through a lot of terrible things in my life and I never want to kill anyone.  I found out that I was pregnant when the baby was six weeks old.  It was an accident.  Our twins were just 15 months old and we thought that it was too much for us to handle another baby.  We were very sad.  Even though at six weeks it didn't have a lot of shape, it was a life.

I'm sure that abortion to many people is morally wrong, but I think there are other things that are morally wrong that people don't pay attention to.  Within the marriage, many men play a lesser role in childcare.  Isn't that morally wrong?  If you love this person, how could you let her work so hard by herself and not help her?  There is a feeling that a woman is just a shelter for children to be born, just a host.  I think that abortion should be a choice for women."