Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of Roe V. Wade

We must tell them that in the early part of this century, twelve thousand women died each year from back alley abortions. Over the past twenty-five years, legalized abortion has literally saved the lives and the health of millions of women.

We must tell them that this landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision meant that a woman's most intimate decision about whether or not to bear a child would no longer be fraught with terror. That she, not the government, could determine her reproductive destiny.

We must tell them that the court's decision didn't end the fight, and that we have waged arduous legal and political battles in California to secure reproductive rights for poor women and for young women, so often denied this right.

But we must also tell them that in thirty-one other states new laws make access more difficult today than it has been for most of their lifetimes: from denying abortion to poor women, to requiring burdensome waiting periods and biased counseling, to the threat of clinic violence. Today, in 93% of the counties in this country, there is no abortion provider.

Politicians continue to polarize Americans on this fundamental issue, so essential to the ability of women to participate as equals in our society. Right now in California a campaign is underway for a ballot measure which would strip young women of the right to choose an abortion, and allow only the court or their parents to make that vital decision for them.

The fight is relentless, but our commitment is strengthened by our collective memory of dangerous and deadly criminal abortion laws. That experience profoundly shaped the pro-choice movement, and that is why, on this twenty-fifth anniversary, we must tell our story so that we can inspire the next generation with a new resolve to fulfill the true promise of Roe v. Wade.

With a perspective, I'm Dorothy Ehrlich.

Dorothy Ehrlich is the Executive Director of the ACLU of Northern California.