Chalmers: Since ancient times, women have found ways to end unwanted pregnancies

Letter to the editor

I grew up in a city with a huge naval base, and as the old WW II song goes, “All the nice girls love a sailor” – and they did. In my town, most of the girls who were impregnated by these wonderful sailors worked in the naval yards all day during the week and a half day on Saturday, so they had their abortions after work on Saturday.

I went to a convent school and worked at the related hospital across the street on the weekend. Sundays were often the days when these girls would come in hemorrhaging from an abortion they had gotten in some sleazy hotel room by an unskilled abortionist.

Next I lived in London, where I shared a room with an English girl who was impregnated by a boy she did not love. She bled so much from her botched illegal abortion that she spent almost a month in bed recovering. In her weakened state, she contracted TB, which almost ended her life.

Next I moved to New York City, where I worked as a fashion model. One day I received a letter from an old schoolmate who was living in Montreal. She was coming to visit me. I learned when she came that it was because she had been raped and wanted an abortion. I had no idea what to do, so I asked my fellow workers. That is when I learned that the fashion models all went to the Caribbean for their abortions, and the stock room girls went to some place up in Harlem.

Not having any money, my friend chose Harlem, and I went along to give moral support. A woman met us at the door, picking her teeth with a hairpin, and pointed to the dirty kitchen table where she did her abortions. We fled in horror and my friend went back to Montreal. There she found an abortionist who looked cleaner. And it was there that she bled to death.

Next I came to Gainesville, where a faculty wife got impregnated by her husband, who was considering leaving her and their two children. She found an abortionist down in Tampa who agreed to meet her at a motel. On the table, when she asked if she could have some anesthesia, he told her that she had to remain fully alert in case they were raided, in which case she would have to be prepared to get down and run to her car to drive away.

Since ancient times, women have found a way to end an unwanted pregnancy. Young State Legislators will not change that.

Jean Chalmers, Gainesville

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