Sally Field, on the “hideous” and “traumatic” illegal abortion
she underwent as a 17-year-old in 1964:
“It was during a time even worse than now. A time when
contraception was not readily available and only if you were married. But I
feel that so many women of my generation went through similar, traumatic events
and I feel stronger when I think of them. I believe, like me, they must want to
fight for their grandchildren and all the young women of this country … we [a
doctor, his wife, and my mother] parked on a really scroungy-looking street [in
Tijuana], it was scary and he parked about three blocks away and said, ‘See
that building down there?’ And he gave me an envelope with cash and I was to
walk into that building and give them the cash and then come right back to him
… a technician giving me a few puffs of ether but he would then take it away,
so it just made my arms and legs feel numb [and] weird, but I felt everything –
how much pain I was in. Then the situation turned darker. I realized that the
technician was actually molesting me, so I had to figure out, how can I make my
arms move to push him away? So it was just this absolute pit of shame. And
then, when it was finished, they said, ‘Go go go go go!,’ like the building was
on fire. And they didn’t want me there, you know, it was illegal. These are the
things that women are going through now—when they’re trying to get to another
state, they don’t have the money, they don’t have the means, they don’t know
where they’re going … and do that to our little girls and our young women, and
not have respect and regard for their health and their own decisions about
whether they feel they’re able to give birth to a child at that time.”
Is this what you want for women in America in 2024, because
it’s what you get if The Felon, Sofa Loren and Project 2025 take over in
January.
Don’t go back to those dark days; move forward.
photo |