Celebrating the right to choose

It was a birthday party that was anything but typical. The presents were free condoms, the entertainment was a documentary entitled "Motherless: A legacy of loss from illegal abortion" and the cake had thirty candles on top and read: Happy 30th Birthday, Roe v. Wade. Aviva Moster, Penn's American Civil Liberties Union reproductive rights liaison, expressed the importance of the event in "ensuring the longevity of Roe v. Wade and its legacy." Today marks 30 years of legally sanctified reproductive freedom for women and Penn students celebrated in the Law School's Silverman Hall. However, because abortions had been occurring illegally long before the ruling, one of the main motivations for the evening's event was "so that people understand what happened when abortion was illegal," said Carol Petraitis, director of the ACLU's Clara Bell Duvall Reproductive Freedom Project. The first part of the evening was devoted to a documentary film presented by Janet Goldwater. The film featured the children left behind by mothers who died from fatalities that resulted from illegal or self-inflicted abortions. Tears and solemn silences marked the film and deeply touched some audience members. "I never thought about the fact of women who already had children dying from abortion," said Sherri Sclaroff, a local teacher and community member. According to recent Pennsylvania statistics, over 50 percent of women who have abortions have already mothered at least one child. More statistics and logistics of the legal ramifications of Roe v. Wade and subsequent abortion rulings were then detailed by Caroline Rogus, a third-year law student at Penn. Rogus fears that now that America is under the governance of a Republican president and Senate, subsequent rulings will make it easier for "states to chip away at [legislations] as they have in Pennsylvania." Although she describes the future as "troubling," some still see hope. "As long as there are so many women who are willing to speak up on this issue, then hopefully there will be enough pressure from the people not to change" the Roe v. Wade rulings, said audience member Andrea Zucker, a College senior. Petraitis agrees that the decisions will be upheld as long as people continue to speak up. "I understand that the political implications are horrific," she said, "but there is so much to do." And much of what is to be done is in the field of education, an issue that was addressed by physician LaRisaa Chism. She stressed means of protection, the need for communication between partners and the availability of resources for help. With an increase in education and an increase in freedom of choice, Nursing student Lisa Kutzing said she feels that abortion rates and pregnancies will not increase but instead, people will be able to make more educated and safer decisions. "A lot of people think that if you make abortion legal, people are going to keep on doing it for fun or something," Kutzing said. "But that's not the case. People are going to keep on doing it but are going to get killed doing it." The celebration and commemoration of the landmark case was sponsored by the Penn chapter of the ACLU, the Clara Bell Duvall Reproductive Freedom Project, Penn Law School and Penn for Choice.