Gave Women 'Full Rights' As 'First-Class Citizens,' Opinion Piece Says

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: Pregnancy / Obstetrics;  Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 04 Jun 2008 - 8:00 PDT

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Roe v. Wade -- which might be in danger of being "swept aside" by an increasingly conservative Supreme Court -- "finally" gave women the "full rights of first-class citizens" and freed their doctors to "treat them as such," retired ob-gyn Waldo Fielding, author of the book Pregnancy: The Best State of the Union, writes in a New York Times opinion piece.

Abortions "have always been done, dating from ancient Greek days," Fielding writes. He details his experiences in treating women who experienced complications from clandestine abortions before Roe while he was a practicing ob-gyn in New York City from 1948 to 1953. Fielding adds that a woman's "desperate need to terminate a pregnancy was the driving force" behind her decision to use "any method available" to perform an abortion, putting her at "total risk" and not knowing "whether she would live or die."

According to Fielding, Roe "did not mean that abortions could be performed" but rather said that "ending a pregnancy could be carried out by medical personnel, in a medically accepted setting" (Fielding, New York Times, 6/3).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

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