[00:00:14.07]
[somber music]

[00:00:17.02]
- I was 17 years old,

[00:00:19.00]
I was married,

[00:00:21.01]
and 10 months after I was
married I had a baby girl.

[00:00:25.08]
She was very ill, very jaundiced,

[00:00:28.03]
and the doctor told me, the
OB-GYN who had delivered her

[00:00:32.08]
told me that if I ever had
another child, I would die.

[00:00:36.06]
Three months later, I was pregnant again,

[00:00:40.06]
and I was absolutely terrified.

[00:00:43.02]
So I went back to him and
I said, "Am I pregnant?"

[00:00:47.00]
And he said, "Yes."

[00:00:48.04]
And he said, "I told you
not to get pregnant."

[00:00:51.01]
And I said, "But you
didn't tell me how not to."

[00:00:56.09]
- I thought we were pretty close.

[00:00:59.02]
I mean, we had talked
about getting married,

[00:01:01.03]
we had talked about babies,

[00:01:02.09]
we had talked about what
we would name a child.

[00:01:07.01]
And when I got pregnant
and said, "I'm pregnant,"

[00:01:14.07]
everything changed.

[00:01:17.04]
It was like, "Well, whose is it?"

[00:01:21.04]
And...

[00:01:24.01]
that was such a shock to me

[00:01:27.02]
that...

[00:01:29.04]
the relationship ended.

[00:01:34.04]
- And there was this whole kind of thing

[00:01:36.07]
that we had to keep it an absolute secret,

[00:01:38.08]
and it was a humiliating,
strange kind of experience.

[00:01:44.09]
And so I decided I
should have an abortion.

[00:01:47.03]
I didn't know what it would be.

[00:01:50.03]
I didn't really understand
the implications

[00:01:56.00]
in the fact that it
was illegal, so I said,

[00:01:59.09]
well, it was just like it would
make this problem go away.

[00:02:04.08]
[somber music]

[00:02:18.05]
- [Narrator] Until the mid 1800s,

[00:02:20.08]
abortions were legal and
available in the United States.

[00:02:25.01]
Both the state and the church

[00:02:26.08]
permitted abortions if they
occurred before quickening,

[00:02:30.00]
when the mother first
perceived fetal movement.

[00:02:33.06]
In 1847, the newly formed
American Medical Association

[00:02:38.01]
began a campaign to
professionalize medicine

[00:02:41.02]
by outlawing what it called quackery.

[00:02:45.06]
Included in its ban were
midwives and herbalists

[00:02:48.09]
who had provided abortion
and maternity care

[00:02:51.02]
in their communities for centuries.

[00:02:54.08]
During the second half
of the 19th century,

[00:02:57.09]
Victorian society began to
condemn women seeking abortions

[00:03:01.08]
as selfish, immoral, and
shirking the duty of motherhood.

[00:03:07.03]
Protestant and Catholic churches

[00:03:09.02]
joined the medical establishment

[00:03:11.03]
in expressing their condemnation.

[00:03:14.08]
Meanwhile, legislation
restricting abortion

[00:03:17.07]
continued to spread, and
by the turn of the century

[00:03:21.03]
both birth control and abortion
were illegal in most states.

[00:03:27.01]
If a woman needed medical treatment

[00:03:29.01]
after a botched abortion,

[00:03:31.00]
she faced a humiliating
and dangerous situation.

[00:03:34.06]
Even though infected and bleeding,

[00:03:37.01]
she was often required to testify

[00:03:39.01]
against her husband or
lover, and the abortionist,

[00:03:42.00]
before she could receive medical care.

[00:03:45.02]
[somber music]

[00:03:47.01]
- [Maria] I, Maria Hecht,
believing I am about to die,

[00:03:50.09]
make this my ante-mortem statement.

[00:03:53.09]
I became acquainted with John Shockweiler.

[00:03:57.00]
I had sexual intercourse with
him, and in the month of May

[00:04:00.07]
I noticed that I was pregnant.

[00:04:02.08]
- [Cora] I, Cora Alice
Grimes, about to die,

[00:04:06.01]
make this statement.

[00:04:07.08]
On the second day of July, 1896,

[00:04:10.07]
James Dunn, a retail merchant,
gave me a packet of calomel.

[00:04:15.03]
I took two doses of the calomel.

[00:04:17.06]
- [Berlettie] I, Berlettie
Parker, am about to die.

[00:04:21.00]
I went to visit Dr. Polian...

[00:04:25.05]
- [Narrator] Well into
the twentieth century,

[00:04:27.07]
a climate of fear prevailed.

[00:04:31.03]
- I went to medical school
in New York City in the '50s,

[00:04:33.08]
when abortions were
illegal, and every day,

[00:04:37.00]
the city hospital that
my medical school staffed

[00:04:40.09]
would have 20 or 30 women
come in infected, and bleeding

[00:04:46.00]
and dying from abortions that
they had induced themselves,

[00:04:49.06]
and the coat-hanger trick was used,

[00:04:52.01]
or they had a friend that had a catheter

[00:04:54.02]
and they'd leave the
catheter in for a day or two,

[00:04:57.06]
and she was bleeding and
cramping, and they'd come in.

[00:05:02.08]
And that's not an exaggeration,

[00:05:04.07]
and I think it was true
in any major city area

[00:05:09.04]
in this country in the '50s.

[00:05:12.05]
- Okay.

[00:05:13.03]
When we got them,

[00:05:14.02]
we received them, like,
with a temperature of 105.

[00:05:19.04]
Bleeding.

[00:05:21.08]
Totally, totally infected.

[00:05:25.03]
We had some die in shock because
they did not tell the truth

[00:05:30.09]
and they was afraid to tell the truth

[00:05:33.02]
as to what had happened because
they knew it was illegal,

[00:05:37.09]
and they felt like we were
only getting the information

[00:05:41.07]
to report them to the police.

[00:05:45.03]
It's like, "Turn me in,
that I aborted myself."

[00:05:50.06]
They was just plain housewives

[00:05:53.02]
who felt like, "I can't
afford another child."

[00:05:59.00]
- I couldn't have that baby,
because if I did, and I died,

[00:06:03.04]
who would take care of
the little baby I had?

[00:06:06.05]
And so, I asked the young
women where I worked,

[00:06:08.09]
I worked at a Walgreen
drugstore, and I asked them

[00:06:12.01]
if there was somebody who
could help me do something.

[00:06:15.04]
You didn't say the word
"abortion" in those days.

[00:06:18.04]
And they knew what I wanted.

[00:06:20.09]
And they sent me to a woman,

[00:06:22.09]
and she told me that
she would do it for $50.

[00:06:26.00]
This was in 1939, and
$50 was a lot of money.

[00:06:30.08]
And I worked hard, and
I sold everything I had

[00:06:33.03]
that I could get a few pennies for,

[00:06:35.07]
and I eventually got my $50

[00:06:37.09]
and I went out to see this woman.

[00:06:40.04]
And she put, I think it was
a strip of slippery elm bark,

[00:06:46.02]
and she inserted this up my uterus.

[00:06:50.02]
And she said, "Now you go
home, and that will swell up,

[00:06:55.05]
"and you will have pain,

[00:06:57.01]
"and you will probably
have some temperature,

[00:06:59.07]
"but you will have a miscarriage."

[00:07:03.08]
Two days later I had a screaming fever,

[00:07:06.08]
and I was in such pain,

[00:07:09.00]
and so I went back out to see this woman.

[00:07:12.02]
And she lived in a shack.

[00:07:14.08]
And she met me at the door and she said,

[00:07:17.02]
"I told you not to come back."

[00:07:18.06]
And I said, "I have nowhere else to go."

[00:07:21.07]
And so she cleaned me up.

[00:07:24.00]
And I was so frightened
and I was in tears,

[00:07:26.06]
and she put her arms around me like that,

[00:07:29.03]
and she just held me up
to her chest for a minute

[00:07:31.06]
and she said, "Honey,

[00:07:32.09]
"did you think it was
so easy to be a woman?"

[00:07:35.08]
I'll never forget that,

[00:07:37.00]
never forget the kindness of that woman,

[00:07:39.08]
even under those terrible circumstances.

[00:07:42.05]
And so, she said, "This time you go,"

[00:07:44.08]
she gave me some aspirin.

[00:07:46.09]
She said, "Don't you
ever come back again."

[00:07:49.09]
And that was the last I saw of her.

[00:07:52.01]
And I had a roaring fever
for about three or four days,

[00:07:54.09]
and then I got better.

[00:07:57.08]
And I went back to see my doctor

[00:08:01.02]
when I got the money for
the visit, and I told him.

[00:08:05.08]
I said, "I had something done."

[00:08:08.04]
And he said, "Well, I
figured a smart kid like you

[00:08:11.08]
"would figure a way out of it."

[00:08:14.02]
And I looked at him then,
and I thought, how could he?

[00:08:17.06]
How could he?

[00:08:19.04]
This was a man trained and
licensed, and he turned me away,

[00:08:23.03]
and I had to go out and
find this woman to do this,

[00:08:27.05]
and it was to save my very own life.

[00:08:32.06]
- The day came

[00:08:35.01]
and they took me to...

[00:08:39.03]
a motel several miles from Boise.

[00:08:43.03]
It was a dirty motel.

[00:08:45.02]
And I was alone with this woman

[00:08:46.09]
and I remember what she
looked like really well.

[00:08:51.01]
She was dirty, too.

[00:08:54.01]
And...

[00:08:57.02]
not friendly, really.

[00:09:04.06]
Divorced from the proceedings.

[00:09:07.06]
And she gave me a cervical puncture,

[00:09:10.08]
and I remember the steel tool, you know.

[00:09:17.05]
And then she told me to go,

[00:09:20.01]
and that there would be blood,
but it would be all right,

[00:09:25.00]
But the fact is that I didn't
abort, and I just bled a lot.

[00:09:30.02]
And it was incredibly painful
and I got a bad infection.

[00:09:35.08]
And they started looking for a doctor

[00:09:37.06]
because I just kept bleeding
and bleeding, and not aborting.

[00:09:42.07]
And finally they found a doctor.

[00:09:45.09]
He gave me some medication
to make me abort.

[00:09:51.03]
And I aborted at home so
that if he were caught,

[00:09:56.05]
he would be able to prove

[00:09:58.06]
that the process had been initiated

[00:10:00.09]
before he became involved.

[00:10:04.04]
And he explained that to me,

[00:10:06.03]
that he wanted to be
able to help other women

[00:10:10.05]
who found themselves in my position,

[00:10:13.04]
and that the only way he could
protect himself was that.

[00:10:17.03]
And so that was-- I had to do that alone.

[00:10:23.02]
- I didn't tell anyone except the father.

[00:10:28.04]
And when I saw his reaction,
I didn't tell anyone else.

[00:10:34.02]
I just thought, well, this is my problem

[00:10:37.06]
and I'll have to deal with it.

[00:10:40.01]
And the only thing I could
do was to get an abortion,

[00:10:44.07]
because to have a baby without
a husband just was not done.

[00:10:50.06]
I just went to the telephone
directory and I looked up

[00:10:56.07]
obstetricians, gynecologists,

[00:11:00.00]
and I looked for a gynecologist

[00:11:03.07]
that didn't advertise as an obstetrician,

[00:11:07.01]
and I thought maybe he
would be most sympathetic.

[00:11:12.04]
And it turned out he was.

[00:11:15.05]
- There were many physicians

[00:11:18.00]
who were supportive of abortion,

[00:11:19.09]
who felt it should be available

[00:11:21.06]
and provided safely for women,

[00:11:24.00]
but they were afraid
to do them themselves.

[00:11:27.02]
Sometimes the fear was because

[00:11:29.00]
they didn't want to be found
out or would be censured,

[00:11:31.04]
but very often, their fear
was, and rightly I think,

[00:11:36.06]
that as soon as word got out

[00:11:38.07]
that they were willing to do abortions,

[00:11:40.09]
they would be flooded with requests.

[00:11:43.04]
- One of the doctors

[00:11:45.04]
who started off thinking he
would do a few abortions,

[00:11:49.01]
and who found himself

[00:11:51.08]
getting referrals of women from
all over the United States,

[00:11:56.07]
was Dr. Curtis Boyd.

[00:11:59.06]
In 1965, he began to do abortions

[00:12:03.07]
for women referred to him by ministers.

[00:12:06.09]
Over the course of the next eight years,

[00:12:09.04]
he did thousands of abortions.

[00:12:14.05]
- I began to realize how difficult it was

[00:12:16.03]
to obtain the service,

[00:12:18.08]
how desperately women
needed it and wanted it,

[00:12:21.04]
and to what lengths they
would go to obtain it,

[00:12:24.03]
even to readily risking their life.

[00:12:26.01]
People talk about it as
though women didn't know that.

[00:12:28.06]
That didn't matter.

[00:12:29.08]
Women risked their life
every day to get an abortion

[00:12:34.01]
somewhere in this country.

[00:12:35.02]
Many of them did.

[00:12:37.00]
Without hesitation.

[00:12:39.01]
[somber music]

[00:12:41.06]
- And I just really literally

[00:12:43.00]
walked up and down the streets.

[00:12:45.02]
I was by myself,

[00:12:46.09]
and I would go from one place to another

[00:12:49.09]
and they would all be
in the same situation.

[00:12:51.09]
They would say, "Nobody's there,

[00:12:54.03]
I don't know what you're taking about,"

[00:12:56.02]
and "Oh, they moved away."

[00:12:58.09]
Finally, one day, I heard of a place,

[00:13:01.07]
nobody answered the phone,

[00:13:03.08]
but I got in the car and I went there

[00:13:05.05]
and I knocked on the door,

[00:13:07.07]
sort of after hours, like
evening, early evening.

[00:13:11.09]
I was the only one there.

[00:13:14.03]
He did not give me anything,
there was no anesthesia at all.

[00:13:17.06]
And it was very painful

[00:13:18.05]
and I had no idea it was
supposed to be painful.

[00:13:20.09]
I thought maybe he had
done something terrible,

[00:13:22.08]
he was doing something terrible to me.

[00:13:24.07]
And so it was a frightening experience.

[00:13:26.07]
That was frightening.

[00:13:28.01]
[somber music]

[00:13:30.01]
- [Narrator] Throughout the
years of criminal abortion,

[00:13:32.02]
an aura of danger surrounded
unwanted pregnancies.

[00:13:37.03]
Women drank toxic substances.

[00:13:40.04]
Unscrupulous practitioners
administered caustic douches

[00:13:44.03]
of Lysol and Clorox.

[00:13:46.09]
Reports of rape

[00:13:47.08]
and other sexual abuse by
abortionists were common.

[00:13:54.00]
- At that time, shotgun
marriages were in vogue,

[00:13:56.07]
and there were all these
youngsters getting married,

[00:14:00.06]
which I soon saw that that
never solved anything.

[00:14:04.00]
It only made the matters worse.

[00:14:06.01]
The marriages never lasted,
the children suffered,

[00:14:09.09]
and it was a miserable situation.

[00:14:13.00]
And then we went through the
period when we were sending

[00:14:17.03]
girls to homes for the unwed mothers

[00:14:20.07]
that were all over the country,

[00:14:22.08]
and they were expected to work part time

[00:14:26.01]
and give up their child for adoption.

[00:14:29.00]
And that was a very sad situation

[00:14:32.03]
because you would see
a young woman come in,

[00:14:36.06]
if she was a school girl
she would have to go off,

[00:14:40.03]
leave home, and everyone knew why,

[00:14:43.05]
and her life was really wrecked

[00:14:45.04]
socially and academically
and everything else.

[00:14:49.06]
And it was the young
that really got to me,

[00:14:51.08]
seeing some of these
youngsters, 12, 13, 14,

[00:14:56.00]
their mothers would bring them in,

[00:14:58.02]
and it was just a horrible thing.

[00:15:02.01]
[somber music]

[00:15:04.08]
- [Narrator] As public awareness grew

[00:15:06.02]
about the consequences
of illegal abortion,

[00:15:09.02]
lawmakers and clergy joined
with the medical establishment

[00:15:12.05]
in pressing for reforms.

[00:15:15.06]
In states where therapeutic
abortions were permitted,

[00:15:18.07]
some doctors were lenient

[00:15:20.04]
so they could provide more
women with safe abortions.

[00:15:24.03]
- I heard about these
two coeds in Stanford

[00:15:28.06]
who went to Tijuana and
obtained illegal abortions.

[00:15:34.02]
The first was a girl who

[00:15:37.08]
came back with a fulminating septicemia

[00:15:42.00]
and who subsequently died.

[00:15:44.05]
The second came back

[00:15:47.01]
and had a severe infection
of her reproductive organs,

[00:15:51.06]
and it was necessary to do a hysterectomy,

[00:15:55.04]
which rendered her sterile, of course.

[00:15:58.06]
At the same time, there was
in existence in California

[00:16:02.03]
a law which allowed for

[00:16:06.04]
medical support with an
abortion on non-medical grounds,

[00:16:11.07]
namely through a psychiatric channel.

[00:16:14.03]
We would use these channels

[00:16:15.08]
in order to enable the girl or woman

[00:16:19.00]
to get a therapeutic abortion.

[00:16:22.06]
Why did I do this?

[00:16:25.07]
It was outrage at the way in
which women were being treated.

[00:16:30.01]
Whether there was the reaction
of the boyfriend, or fiance,

[00:16:34.01]
or husband, some of these
responses were grotesque.

[00:16:37.04]
Some men told the women that,

[00:16:39.04]
"If I had known you were so stupid,

[00:16:41.03]
I wouldn't have gone with
you in the first place."

[00:16:43.08]
Others told the girl
that it's her problem,

[00:16:47.00]
she's got the baby, he didn't
have anything to do with it.

[00:16:49.09]
A good number of them just took off,

[00:16:53.03]
just had no response whatsoever.

[00:16:55.08]
So where do women who
are desperate get help?

[00:17:00.06]
- It did make me recognize

[00:17:04.01]
that there were many of us out there,

[00:17:07.01]
who were looking desperately

[00:17:08.06]
for someplace to solve the problem.

[00:17:11.07]
And, so, I began to listen.

[00:17:15.00]
I began to hear when
anybody said that they--

[00:17:18.03]
You tune in, you know,
you get sensitive to it,

[00:17:20.07]
and you begin to hear
things that give you a clue,

[00:17:22.08]
and you pursue it a little bit

[00:17:24.02]
and find out that somebody
did have an abortion.

[00:17:27.06]
And I just got the names of the doctors,

[00:17:29.05]
and I would just give the names.

[00:17:32.09]
A young woman would call on the phone,

[00:17:35.05]
someone I didn't know,
and would ask for help,

[00:17:40.05]
and that they were feeling so desperate

[00:17:43.04]
that they were calling strangers.

[00:17:47.01]
I was aware that what I
was doing was illegal.

[00:17:52.05]
I guess I think what was
going to happen to them

[00:17:54.04]
was worse than the possibility
of what might happen to me.

[00:17:57.08]
[somber music]

[00:17:58.09]
- [Narrator] People who themselves

[00:18:00.01]
had had to search for an abortion,

[00:18:02.04]
understood the difficulty in finding one.

[00:18:07.03]
When Russ was 19,

[00:18:09.00]
he and his girlfriend
realized she was pregnant.

[00:18:13.05]
- I was terrified at the
prospect of being a father,

[00:18:15.05]
and I went to my assistant track coach,

[00:18:18.08]
a young guy, very friendly,
and so then I told him.

[00:18:23.07]
And he said find out more about it,

[00:18:26.07]
what do you wanna do, and so forth,

[00:18:28.07]
and I began to ask around

[00:18:31.04]
about possibilities of
her getting an abortion.

[00:18:34.06]
And I talked to her about it

[00:18:36.09]
and she didn't wanna be a mother, either.

[00:18:40.01]
First off, there was
some misbegotten effort,

[00:18:43.00]
I don't know where it
originated or how it happened,

[00:18:46.00]
to get some kind of pills
that would induce an abortion,

[00:18:50.00]
and they didn't work.

[00:18:53.02]
Finally, I get a name of
someone actually in town,

[00:18:56.07]
in Los Angeles, who's willing
to do this, and get a price.

[00:19:03.08]
And my assistant coach gave me the money.

[00:19:10.00]
- [Narrator] Years after
his own experience,

[00:19:12.04]
Russ had a chance to help someone else.

[00:19:16.00]
- I was approached by a
senior professor, a woman,

[00:19:21.03]
who had a student, a freshman,

[00:19:26.02]
and she was pregnant.

[00:19:30.08]
Did I, by any chance,

[00:19:32.07]
have any information on where
she might get an abortion?

[00:19:38.09]
Well, it's interesting, I didn't hesitate.

[00:19:41.09]
I got a name of someone,

[00:19:43.09]
highly confident that this
was a good clinic in Tijuana.

[00:19:49.01]
And she got the abortion.

[00:19:50.07]
Well, I saw her about two years ago,

[00:19:55.00]
and she came up to me and she thanked me.

[00:20:02.08]
[Russ sighs]

[00:20:06.02]
That was nice.

[00:20:11.03]
It felt a little bit like saving a life.

[00:20:17.00]
[somber music]

[00:20:25.00]
- [Narrator] Lola Huth was the lead dancer

[00:20:27.01]
of the Jose Limon Dance Company.

[00:20:30.00]
She was married and the
mother of a baby girl

[00:20:32.09]
when she died from a
self-induced abortion.

[00:20:38.03]
- At the time of my sister's death,

[00:20:41.01]
I was told she died

[00:20:45.02]
in childbirth, but that
didn't make any sense.

[00:20:48.07]
Then I was told it was a miscarriage,

[00:20:51.09]
that she bled to death.

[00:20:56.08]
The story came to me in bits
and pieces over many years.

[00:21:02.00]
- [Narrator] Even though she was using

[00:21:03.03]
an IUD for birth control,
Lola became pregnant.

[00:21:07.02]
A doctor told her that the IUD

[00:21:09.01]
would probably cause
the baby to be deformed,

[00:21:12.00]
but that removing it
might cause a miscarriage.

[00:21:15.01]
Lola weighed the risks carefully

[00:21:17.02]
and decided to have the IUD removed.

[00:21:20.02]
- She went back for the scheduled
appointment and he said,

[00:21:23.02]
"I'm sorry, I have
consulted with colleagues,

[00:21:25.06]
"and I cannot do anything

[00:21:28.02]
"that could implicate
me in an illegal act.

[00:21:31.01]
"Right now, the whole abortion
issue is very, very hot

[00:21:35.07]
"and very controversial, and I
just can't implicate myself."

[00:21:40.04]
And she said,

[00:21:41.02]
"Well, then I am inclined to
believe I will do it myself."

[00:21:45.00]
And he said "All right,
well, I tell you what to do,

[00:21:47.00]
"I'll tell you how to do it,

[00:21:48.09]
"and when you're in the
process of miscarriage

[00:21:51.02]
"you can call me, you
can go to the hospital,

[00:21:53.05]
"and then I'll be able to help you

[00:21:55.03]
"without jeopardizing my own position."

[00:21:58.00]
So that was her plan.

[00:22:00.05]
- [Narrator] When removing the IUD

[00:22:02.01]
didn't cause a miscarriage,
Lola became desperate.

[00:22:05.07]
She sought a way to end
the pregnancy herself.

[00:22:09.07]
- She purchased a couple
of tubes, plastic tubes,

[00:22:16.04]
and what she was told to do

[00:22:18.03]
was insert these tubes into the cervix,

[00:22:21.03]
and blow air into the cervix,

[00:22:23.01]
and that would cause her to abort.

[00:22:26.01]
So she filed a sharp point,
and had punctured a vein,

[00:22:32.09]
and got air into her bloodstream.

[00:22:35.06]
[somber music]

[00:22:39.09]
- When we realized I was pregnant again,

[00:22:46.08]
I told my mother.

[00:22:48.07]
She asked me if I wanted
another abortion, and I said no.

[00:22:54.03]
I couldn't stand the
idea of doing that again.

[00:22:58.04]
- [Narrator] Rosalie had
been raped by an older man.

[00:23:02.00]
She was afraid that
another illegal abortion

[00:23:04.08]
would lead to the same medical
complications as before,

[00:23:08.06]
so she decided to go to
a home for unwed mothers

[00:23:12.02]
and then give the baby up for adoption.

[00:23:15.08]
- Everyone told me

[00:23:18.02]
that if I had any sense, I
wouldn't look at the baby,

[00:23:20.03]
I would just let them take it away

[00:23:21.06]
and I would never look
at the baby, but I did,

[00:23:23.03]
I let them bring the baby
to me and I held the baby.

[00:23:28.01]
And that was a terrible mistake.

[00:23:29.09]
And then I owed some money

[00:23:32.02]
for my board and room and medical,

[00:23:35.09]
and so I stayed for awhile

[00:23:37.04]
and I worked in the nursery
to work the money off,

[00:23:40.01]
and that was a very bad mistake

[00:23:42.02]
because I was just around
babies all the time.

[00:23:45.07]
And I wanted to keep the baby,

[00:23:48.02]
and I actually held the
baby before they took it.

[00:23:52.09]
Oh, god.

[00:23:54.07]
[Rosalie sighs]

[00:23:58.07]
[somber music]

[00:24:04.03]
Ah...

[00:24:08.09]
And anybody who would
think that'd be a great way

[00:24:11.09]
to solve the problem is just...

[00:24:18.06]
[Rosalie sighs]

[00:24:24.08]
I mean, you take a child who
doesn't even know her own mind,

[00:24:28.05]
a 17-year-old

[00:24:32.04]
young woman, and ask her

[00:24:34.09]
to carry a baby in her body

[00:24:38.06]
for nine months, and then give birth to it

[00:24:40.06]
and then just give it
away like it's nothing.

[00:24:44.06]
[somber music]

[00:24:47.09]
- It's very difficult,
even after 40 years,

[00:24:51.09]
to admit to doing something
that was against the law,

[00:24:57.07]
that was illegal.

[00:24:59.07]
It sort of puts you in the position

[00:25:01.08]
of having a criminal past,

[00:25:06.03]
and although you might not feel

[00:25:08.07]
that what you did was in any way criminal,

[00:25:13.05]
there's still the stigma to it.

[00:25:18.02]
But it's a relief

[00:25:20.04]
to be able to talk about
it after all these years

[00:25:24.01]
and say, hey, I was human.

[00:25:28.04]
- I knew that I could
lose my medical license,

[00:25:31.01]
I knew that I could go to prison.

[00:25:34.07]
And just as I had to trust
these women who came to me

[00:25:41.00]
not to bring charges against me

[00:25:43.00]
which could put me in
prison, they had to trust me

[00:25:48.02]
to give them good medical care and service

[00:25:51.04]
and not harm them.

[00:25:55.02]
And that was a scary thing in those days

[00:25:58.04]
because you didn't always
know who you were going to,

[00:26:01.02]
you didn't know what the
outcome was going to be,

[00:26:03.07]
it was frightening for women
to come from great distances

[00:26:07.01]
to a little town in East
Texas, to some unknown doctor.

[00:26:12.00]
They came by bus, by train,
by car, and they had to trust

[00:26:17.07]
that they were going to
leave there intact and alive.

[00:26:22.02]
[somber music]

[00:26:23.08]
- A woman that's unhappily pregnant

[00:26:27.00]
will risk her life to stop
that particular pregnancy.

[00:26:32.05]
And then, later in her life,
when conditions have changed,

[00:26:36.06]
she will happily risk
her life to have a child.

[00:26:39.08]
This is the same woman.

[00:26:42.06]
- And I was saying to my mother,

[00:26:43.08]
you know, we have to talk about this.

[00:26:45.04]
It's important.

[00:26:46.03]
We can't-- when you're in
conversation with people,

[00:26:48.07]
you tell them that your daughter died

[00:26:50.04]
giving herself an abortion.

[00:26:53.00]
We have to all start
telling these stories.

[00:26:56.04]
You know, that it isn't
just some anonymous person

[00:26:59.00]
that nobody knows who's had an abortion,

[00:27:01.07]
but people right next to us in
our community, in our lives.

[00:27:05.09]
And some of them don't survive.

[00:27:09.00]
[somber music]