What Will Happen if Roe Goes?

By Christine Cupaiuolo — September 29, 2008

Linda Hirshman, a lawyer whose most recent book is “Get to Work: A Manifesto for Women of the World,” addresses that question in this Washington Post piece. Here’s the frightening intro:

In the 1980s, when abortion was severely limited in then-West Germany, border guards sometimes required German women returning from foreign trips to undergo vaginal examinations to make sure that they hadn’t illegally terminated a pregnancy while they were abroad. According to news stories and other accounts, the guards would stop young women and ask them about drugs, then look for evidence of abortion, such as sanitary pads or nightgowns, in their cars, and eventually force them to undergo a medical examination — as West German law empowered them to do.

Sounds like a nightmare of a police state, doesn’t it? Like something that could never happen in this day and age — and certainly not in the United States? But depending upon the outcome of this presidential election, it could happen here. This is how.

Continue reading …

Plus: Hirshman today hosted an online discussion about the restrictions states may place on abortions and women seeking them if Roe v. Wade is overturned.

One response to “What Will Happen if Roe Goes?”

  1. I feel very strongly about this issue. I worked at an abortion clinic, and it only made me more pro-choice. I always said that abortion rights will be the civil war of our times. If anyone thinks pro-choice women are going quietly into the night, they have not spent enough time with us fierce women warriors.

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