Letter to the Editor, 9/30/08

Dear Editor, ‘ ‘ ‘ Thanks for Friday’s front-page article on Ann Fessler, ‘Professor discusses… Dear Editor, ‘ ‘ ‘ Thanks for Friday’s front-page article on Ann Fessler, ‘Professor discusses Roe v. Wade,’ which told much of her fascinating personal story. However, some important aspects of the history told in the film were missing from the article, and this left a misleading impression. ‘ ‘ ‘ Many women portrayed in the film wanted to keep their babies, in spite of the fact that at the time they would have lost their jobs or been expelled from school if they were pregnant. Instead, they received constant pressure from parents, social workers and doctors to relinquish their children for adoption. They were denied counseling or any knowledge of their legal rights, were generally treated inhumanely by hospitals during childbirth and often forced to sign adoption papers a short time later. ‘ ‘ ‘ Of course, the fact that abortion was mostly illegal and contraception mostly unavailable contributed to the difficulties faced by women in the postwar period, and these circumstances sound most ominous to us in this new time of increasing ‘abstinence-only’ sex education. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Marianne Novy English professor