ACLU and Abortion Rights

April 20, 1989

The American Civil Liberties Union today asked Attorney General Richard Thornburgh to withdraw the Justice Department's amicus curiae brief submitted in the Webster case which seeks to reverse the right to abortion, and to decline participation in oral arguments in that case next week.

In a letter to Thornburgh signed by ACLU President Norman Dorsen and Executive Director Ira Glasser, the ACLU asked the Justice Department to consider the voices of the American majority who oppose the federal government's efforts to rescind the constitutional right recognized in the l973 Roe v. Wade decision and upheld several times since.

Rep. Patricia Schroeder (D-Colorado) and actor Ed Asner joined Glasser and Janet Benshoof, Director of the ACLU Reproduc- tive Freedom Project, in delivering more than 200,000 letters from citizens to Thornburgh asking that he reconsider the govern- ment's position in the Webster case. Actress Polly Bergen, an initial signatory of the letter, participated in the planning of the letters transfer and has asked members of the Hollywood community to support the petition drive.

Congresswoman Schroeder, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, helped deliver the petitions to underscore the impact of the Justice Department's involvement in the Webster case. "If the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, it will invite legal chaos in our courts and in our state legislatures," said Rep. Schroeder. "The Attorney General must know that his decision to involve the government in this case will have that ominous effect."

The ACLU solicited those letters from an advertising cam- paign initiated last January after Thornburgh decided to inter- vene in the Webster case, which tests the constitutionality of a Missouri state statute.

Ed Asner, an award-winning actor now starring in the Broad- way production of "Born Yesterday," and actress Polly Bergen have long been active in advocating civil liberties concerns. Ms. Bergen is currently shooting a movie on location in Balti- more.

For further information contact:

Colleen O'Connor - ACLU - (212) 944-9800, Ext. 464

Kathy Bonk - Communications Consortium - (202) 682-1270

Andrea Camp - Rep. Patricia Schroeder's Office - (202) 225-4431

April 20, l989

Hon. Dick Thornburgh
U.S. Justice Department
Washington, D.C. 20530

Dear Mr. Attorney General:

On behalf of 200,000 American citizens, we are today trans- mitting a request that you reconsider your position in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services and withdraw your brief in which you urge the Supreme Court to take away a fundamental constitutional right. We are aware that this case will be argued soon, but there is precedent for such a change of position. In l982, the Reagan administration not only withdrew its brief in the case involving the tax exempt status of Bob Jones University, but changed sides only weeks before oral argument.

The right recognized in Roe v. Wade has dramatically im- proved the lives and health of millions of American women and has helped men and women raise families when they are most able to provide them with love and support. American women will not accept the loss of reproductive choice. A decision to terminate that right will invite turmoil.

If you reverse your position in this case, you will be acting in the finest traditions of American law. As the Supreme Court stated in Young v. United States, 315 U.S. 257, 258 (1942): "The public trust reposed in the law enforcement officers of the Government requires that they be quick to confess error when, in their opinion, a miscarriage of justice may result from their remaining silent."

We and the 200,000 men and women who have taken the time to write you hope that you will rethink your position and take their rights into consideration.

Sincerely,

Norman Dorsen
President

Ira Glasser
Executive Director

The ACLU received letters from every state, from women and men of all ages and economic backgrounds, education and walks of life. Hundreds of signers added personal messages to the Attorney General on their letters. Following is a sampling of some of those notes:

I am a CPA and happily married mother of two bright, talented children. However, my present situation could have been much different had my parents not had the means to take me to Japan for an abortion when I was raped as a high school senior.

(Letter from Connecticut)

* * *

During the Vietnam war days, more American women died from illegal abortions than did men fighting in Vietnam. Don't do it again.

(Letter from New York)

* * *

As a public school teacher I am in close contact with the under- class. Poor women need the option of abortion. In our small middle school of 320 children, one 8th grader had a baby last summer and another had a miscarriage. These adolescents are not ready to be mothers.

(Letter from Connecticut)

* * *

This issue saved me from becoming a father at the age of 16.

(Letter from California)

* * *

I used to be a social worker -- saw kids die from using coat hangers. They couldn't afford the vet down the street or the suite in the elite hospital where the rich went for "D&C's." This was pre Roe v. Wade, of course.

(Letter from California)

* * *

[My grandmother] performed an abortion on herself with a knitting needle. This was in 1938. She left 7 children motherless.

(Letter from New York)

* * *

There is no form of birth control that is 100% effective except sterilization and no doctor will sterilize an unmarried female under the age of thirty. I am appalled by the idea that, some- time in the future, I might have to seek an illegal abortion because I am one of the 1% of the women taking birth control pills to get pregnant.

(Letter from California)

* * *

In 1954 I had an abortion. I was first recommended to a filthy apartment which I left at once. Fortunately I was directed to a certified doctor who performed the abortion. I learned from the newspapers about a month later that he was sent to prison for performing proper abortions. I'm sure the abortionist I first went to stayed in business until abortions were legalized.

(Letter from New York)

* * *

If you want to regulate peoples' lives, move to Rumania - there, children belong to the state, so abortion is illegal...people in the U.S. do not belong to the state. If you can't handle that concept, get out of U.S. Government.

(Letter from Michigan)

* * *

George Bush stated that he had thought long and hard on the serious subject of abortion and had weighed many alternatives before coming to his personal opinion, based on his conscience, feelings and moral beliefs... every citizen of this country should be allowed the same privilege as he had, i.e., under the law, to be able to think long and hard about abortion, weigh the alternatives, and decide based on one's own conscience.

(Letter from California)

* * *

As a woman who nearly died as the result of an illegal abortion, I cannot stress enough the potential dangers of overturning Roe v. Wade.

(Letter from New York)

* * *

I am older than you (70 years old) and had an abortion without anesthesia -- no fun.

(Letter from Michigan)

* * *

This young mother then turned to back alley means and illegally obtained a drug quantity -- ergot apiol -- which she overdosed at home; went into convulsions and died, before her grief stricken husband...I am the surviving orphan son and my sister is the surviving orphan daughter of that needless tragedy.

(Letter from California)

* * *

Mr. Thornburgh, I was raped when I was 18 years old and in College. My whole life was still ahead of me. I had no desire for a child, especially a life begot of violence, and I had an abortion... I do not regret my decision. I would do the same again.

(Letter from California)

* * *

As a male this issue does not affect me directly. I cannot make such a personal decision for millions of women. Neither can the Supreme Court.

(Letter from Missouri)

* * *

I vividly remember trying to find help. I vividly remember the plans to go to Tijuana or Tokyo. I vividly remember the story of sleazy abortionists and of friends who died and the fear of being subjected to the same. I vividly remember the dirty and conflicted feelings of being an honest person desperately wanting something illegal and dangerous.

(Letter from California)

* * *

As a psychiatrist, I see many more problems with women who have had "unwanted" babies than I do women who have had problems after having had legal abortions. This does not exclude the many problems the "unwanted" babies have, and cause.

(Letter from New York)

* * *

I have personal experience in this matter in losing a friend during my high school years in 1950. She was so desperate that she killed herself trying to abort a baby that she couldn't have as a 16 year old.

(Letter from California)

* * *

In my job I teach child abuse preventative skills to mentally retarded teens, many of whom are highly at risk for abuse. I am distressed to think that any of these trusting young women who are beginning to plan an adult life would be forced by society to bear a child.

(Letter from California)

* * *

My natural grandmother, who was a suffragette, worked hard for women to have the inalienable right to vote to represent them- selves. She died at an early age at the hands of a back door abortionist.

(Letter from Arizona)

* * *

I speak with knowledge of 75 years (my age) history and remem- brance of back alley and self inflicted abortions by desperate women. Please, hands off.

(Letter from Pennsylvania)

* * *

As an obstetrician I've seen poor women die from botched illegal abortions; while my affluent patients flew to Japan for safe abortions. Don't overturn Roe v. Wade and start this deathly unfairness all over.

(Letter from California)

* * *

An aunt of mine, who is now in her 50's, had an illegal abortion when she was 19 years old. She had several complications... the worst complication was that a blood clot formed, causing a stroke that left most of her right side paralyzed and affected her mental processes... Over the last 5 - 10 years, my aunt's mental processes have deteriorated rapidly. She now functions at the level of a six or seven year old.

(Letter from Pennsylvania)

* * *

I saw scores of deaths from botched illegal abortions in my service at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, NY, between 1953 and the legalization of abortion.

(Letter from New York)

* * *

Teenagers and young people are going to make mistakes, must they pay for them with their lives by seeking a desperate, illegal abortion, or having the child, dropping out of school and forsak- ing a career? You are not going to stop sex or unplanned and unwanted pregnancies.

(Letter from California)

* * *

I nearly committed suicide in 1962 because I was pregnant and it was illegal to have an abortion.

(Letter from California)