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Gerri's sisters
Have you ever heard of her? The mother of 2, dead at age 27 due to an illegal abortion in 1964. This is a reminder of why we will never go back. This picture first appeared in MS Magazine in April 1973.
I've always been pro-choice on the abortion issue. Most of the women we hear about who have had illegal abortions are no longer young. When a civil rights issue benefits you and you haven't had to fight for it yourself, maybe your generation tends to forget. I never felt I had to go to a pro-choice march until recently. Earlier this month, a group of well-intended people from out of town came to my city to try and persuade me and others that fetuses were babies, and that the lives of these fetuses superceded the women who bore them and the right of these women to decide their own fate.
Tonight, I happened across a bit of history, that I knew had to be there, but because I felt the issue was so safe in my "blue" liberal city, I never bothered to look, and I had seen no evidence of it myself. The women who saw this picture a long time ago never told me about it. I have seen the anti-choicers pictures of aborted fetuses. But in spite of being socially aware and pro-choice, I have never seen pictured the body of a woman who was denied a legal abortion, and who, for reasons only she could know, felt it was safer to risk a self-induced abortion outside of a doctor's help. Tragically, she was abandoned and left to bleed to death. Both hers and the life of her 6 and 1/2 month old fetus were lost. The story is told by her sister, on the website at the link below. Let's not forget Gerri. This is what going back and giving up our rights to the control of others really means.
Tonight, I happened across a bit of history, that I knew had to be there, but because I felt the issue was so safe in my "blue" liberal city, I never bothered to look, and I had seen no evidence of it myself. The women who saw this picture a long time ago never told me about it. I have seen the anti-choicers pictures of aborted fetuses. But in spite of being socially aware and pro-choice, I have never seen pictured the body of a woman who was denied a legal abortion, and who, for reasons only she could know, felt it was safer to risk a self-induced abortion outside of a doctor's help. Tragically, she was abandoned and left to bleed to death. Both hers and the life of her 6 and 1/2 month old fetus were lost. The story is told by her sister, on the website at the link below. Let's not forget Gerri. This is what going back and giving up our rights to the control of others really means.
For more information:
http://www.sapphireblue.com/25years/
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weren't so well intended. Some of them think they're saving lives, but they don't bother to think about who is going to die if women lose the right to choose. Some don't even think it's an issue!
But women will die if we don't stand up,whether teenagers afraid of consent laws, or mothers like Gerri Twerdy Santoro.
But women will die if we don't stand up,whether teenagers afraid of consent laws, or mothers like Gerri Twerdy Santoro.
This made me cry...I saw it once, along time ago...it is an indictment, an rallying cry, a sacral image. We will never go back.
How did you find it?
Thank you for posting it. We should nail it to the front door of St. Marys
Thank you for posting it. We should nail it to the front door of St. Marys
I searched "illegal abortion" in advanced image search on Google. There's also a picture of Gerri Twerdy Santoro when she was alive at this link. A sad story, and what a waste.
For more information:
http://www.lifeandlibertyforwomen.org/abou...
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