Abortionist Jane E Hodgson challenged the anti-abortion law in Minnesota and became a practicing abortionist after Roe vs. Wade. She committed an illegal abortion so that she could go to court and challenge the laws. Her case was pending when Roe was decided.
Here, Hodgson describes the woman whose illegal abortion she performed to instigate her arrest. Her quote reveals that the woman could have had an abortion despite the law.
“So when Mrs. John Doe, already a mother of three, appeared in my office on April 14, 1970, having contracted German measles during her fourth week of pregnancy, I did not send her to England or Mexico or Montréal. She could have afforded it – but what about future patients who could not?
She could have been aborted here in a local hospital with proper consultations (nothing would have been said) – but what about the next case? And what about respect for law? We both knew we could not dodge the issue.”
Jane E Hodgson “Abortion: The Law and the Reality in 1970” Mayo Alumnus October 1970
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