Bay Area women recount abortion ordeals, fear worst in wake of Roe v. Wade reversal
SAN FRANCISCO – Friday's Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade is being called a major legal setback for women's reproductive rights. Three women impacted by abortion told KPIX 5 they are now terrified for other women who may need them.
"It's as if America has rolled back the clock this morning to an unsafe, terrifying age. This cannot stand," said Meg Jordan, a registered nurse and a professor.
Jordan had a legal abortion post-Roe when she was 26-years-old, but she has also seen the bad old days of back alley abortions under the veil of secrecy.
"I can't imagine the terror that other women have gone through. Except, I can imagine it. I did accompany a friend to an illegal abortion and I had to hide in the closet behind a louvered door because the abortionist insisted she be alone. And the abortionist came in and put this plastic cover on the bed and blindfolded her and left her bleeding and we had to take her to an emergency room," Jordan told KPIX 5.
Kelly Dennehy was just 11-years-old, living on Cape Cod, when her family took in a cousin from Nebraska who had to get an abortion in Canada before Roe.
"She made it very, very clear she had to have the abortion and the only way for her to have the abortion was to leave the country," Dennehy told KPIX 5. "I will never forget it. I will never, ever, ever forget it. Going in and checking in on her. She was lying in the bed and just holding her hand and letting her cry."
Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) said she can directly trace her path to her legal decision to terminate a pregnancy.
"I wasn't ready to be a mom then and I was not in a good circumstance. So I made that decision and then I was able to go on and write my own ticket in terms of my life," Wicks told KPIX 5.
Wicks says she cried when the opinion dropped.
"It's a sad day when my daughters have less rights than me as they grow up. It's incredibly scary and it makes the work that we're doing here in California all the more important," the assemblymember said.