One of the benefits of reading a lot of history is finding out things which can provide lessons from the past. The repressive laws and social conditions faced by women in the US before the change in attitudes led by the “women’s liberation” movement are worth studying. If things continue along the present legislative course we may be reverting to some of these repressive times again.
The story below is my paraphrase from the autobiography of Laura Z. Hobson.
She was the person that wrote the novel “Gentleman’s Agreement”, which was also turned into a popular film. For those not familiar, it was an expose of hidden anti-Semitism in housing and public accommodations in the 1930’s and 1940’s. She was married for a short period, so for most of her life she was a single professional woman, which was very unusual for the period.
During her adulthood she had two illegal abortions. The first by a back alley doctor who did it without any anesthetic and apparently did some severe internal damage. The second time went better in that she was at least anesthetized. Later she had a miscarriage which she thought was caused by the prior damage.
Finally, after adopting a child as a single woman, she eventually became pregnant and decided to have the baby. Unwed mothers were a complete no-no in those days, even for a high paid professional. So in order to keep the baby she went into hiding for months, had the baby, had it cared for by a nurse who didn’t even know who had hired her, and then, finally, six months later, “adopted” her own child with the help of a friendly doctor and lawyer.
To finance all of this subrosa activity she had to borrow large sums from some of her wealthy friends. Her success as a novelist and writer helped her pay it back. What makes her story so interesting is that she was willing to tell it at all, even though her autobiography came out when she was in her 70’s.
What I can almost certainly predict will happen if the anti-abortion efforts succeed is that there will be a return to botched abortions. At some point the daughter of a prominent politician or business leader will die from one, and people will begin to wonder if the restrictions were worth the cost. Another historical parallel is useful: Prohibition.
This was another case of a small religiously-inspired group trying to change human nature by means of legislation. It didn’t work. Alcohol consumption declined for only the first few years, and then returned to almost pre-prohibition levels. However, making alcohol illegal led to the rise of organized crime, rampant political corruption, and the bribing of public officials and the police, and a general disdain for the law by the public.
When things got bad enough the amendment was reversed. The “cure” was worse than the disease. There was a permanent effect, however. The organized crime that was funded by bootlegging didn’t go away, it became a permanent part of society and still exists in the drug trade and illegal gambling areas.
The prohibitionists lost out in a second way as well. Not only did their social engineering fail after making society worse for over a decade, but once the amendment was in place the Temperance movement died out. With their objectives met they had no issue anymore. Nobody needed to listen to their message and their fund raising ability ceased. So, if they had wished to carry on for other social causes, say, spousal abuse caused by drunkenness, they couldn’t. The same thing will happen to the religious right. If abortion is their signature issue and they “win” they will lose their base and all the other causes they are funding from the same revenue stream will lose focus.
Some of the masterminds of the movement may know this, which is why they are passing legislation that is obviously not going to withstand judicial review. The governor of South Dakota said as much: “We expect this legislation to be tied up in the courts for years to come.” In other words, they don’t want the law in place, they just want to be seen as doing what their base demands to maintain their credibility and cash cow. But, like the Temperance movement things may get away from them.
Be careful of what you wish for.
