Anchorage Daily News

On Jan. 22, 1973, 35 years ago, in a case called Roe v. Wade, seven justices of the United States Supreme Court decided that abortion should be legalized in all 50 states. Some 50 million unborn babies have been killed since that decision. The plaintiff in Roe v. Wade, Norma McCorvey, has recanted her false testimony and has let us know that the entire case was built on a lie. It is time for the court to take a fresh, honest look at abortion and decide in favor of women and babies by ending abortion in America.

As a mother and a woman who once made the choice to abort my baby, I know women want a better choice. In 1976, I exercised the right the Supreme Court had handed me, and I aborted my unborn child. I did not want an abortion. But like many women, I felt that I too had no choice. I had no husband, no family I could go to, and no crisis pregnancy center. My boyfriend heard there was a place called Planned Parenthood where we could rid ourselves of a problem. I did what was expected of me. I was not forced. But like millions of other women, I hoped to the last that someone would offer me another choice. It never came and so I ended a life, my own child's life. I found that abortion didn't offer me reproductive freedom. It brought destruction, pain and regret and it robbed me of my child. The promises that abortion offered were a lie.

Many times women are being threatened, badgered or killed for refusing to have an abortion. Homicide is the No. 1 cause of death in pregnant women today. Three out of four women killed are in their first 20 weeks of pregnancy. As you can imagine, for each woman killed, thousands have been physically assaulted or subjected to verbal or physical abuse in order to force them into abortion.

• 24-year-old Cherica Adams died a month after being shot four times in the abdomen. Her 8-month-old unborn son survived. Rae Carruth, a former NFL player, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for plotting Cherica's death because he didn't want to pay child support.

• 16-year-old Matthew Wiedeman pleaded guilty to killing Stephanie Burnett and was sentenced to life in prison. Police said Wiedeman believed Stephanie was pregnant and he didn't want her to have the baby. An autopsy showed she wasn't pregnant.

• Shawn Kristopher Holliman, 21, was sentenced to life in prison for killing 17-year-old Tanika Fox with a shot to the head. Police said he killed Tanika because she refused to have an abortion and he didn't want to pay child support.

• Sonya Hayes was shot in the abdomen, killing her and her unborn son. Her boyfriend, Terrance Davis, was sentenced to life in prison for her murder. At his trial, Sonya's mother testified that Davis had wanted Sonya to have an abortion.

• A pipe bomb killed Deana Mitts, who was seven months pregnant, along with her 7-year-old daughter, Kayla. Deana's ex-boyfriend, Joseph Mienerd, was sentenced to life in prison. Police said Mienerd had threatened to kill Deana when she refused to have an abortion.

You can see, it isn't always the mommas doing the choosing. In a survey of women who had abortions, 64 percent said they felt pressured by others to abort.

Abortion is wreaking havoc in women's lives. We need to protect the right of women not to be pressured, coerced or even violently forced into unwanted and dangerous abortions.

The abortion industry should be required to put the welfare of women ahead of their profit margins and ensure that women are being fully informed and are not being pressured into having an abortion.

Abortion does not make women's lives better. We must give women a better choice. Thirty-five years of killing unborn children at any stage, for any reason and hurting women is just too much. It is time for Roe to end.

Debbie Joslin lives in Delta Junction and is president of Eagle Forum Alaska.

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