This woman is clueless. She writes:
Why am I telling Jane’s story now? The lack of legal and safe abortion before the Roe v. Wade decision of 1973 killed and maimed thousands of young women. Should that decision be overturned and abortion again become illegal, there will be countless more young women like Jane.
Let's think this through. If Roe v. Wade (1973) is overruled by the Supreme Court, then states (i.e., the citizens of each state, acting in and through the democratic process) will be able to regulate (and even prohibit) abortion. "Be able to." What will they do? Probably at least half of them will allow abortion up to viability, and some may allow it beyond that point if the woman's health calls for it. The more radical states (e.g., Massachusetts and California) might allow it until the point of birth. Will there be states that ban abortion? I'm sure there will be; but women in these states can travel to other states to terminate their pregnancies. Is this a burden? I'm sure it will be; but there are individuals and organizations (such as NARAL and Planned Parenthood) that can and will pick up the tab.
The author, a doctor, has no legal expertise. She appears not to know what Roe v. Wade did or what would or will happen if it is overruled. Her short essay appears to be designed to confuse and frighten women, which, if true, is despicable. Prior to 1973, there may have been no states that allowed abortion, so women who had unwanted pregnancies were in a bind. This is not the case today, and won't be if Roe is overruled.
If I may add another criticism of the essay, the author says that "Five years later [i.e., in 1973, after Roe was decided], Jane would not have died." How does she know that? Jane may have died even with the best medical care that was available. She was very sick, after all, and she was seven months pregnant. The lesson here is that you should pick your examples carefully.
A final thought: However burdensome it may have been for poor Jane not to be able to get a "legal" abortion, it was far worse for her unborn baby to be killed, and doubly bad to be killed by his or her mother, and triply bad to be killed by his or her mother for reasons of convenience. (Jane, we're told, wasn't "ready" to be a mother and wanted to "continue her training [to] become a nurse." She planned to have other children "later.") One wonders why the author didn't so much as mention the baby.
