Women's right to access abortion services is one of the freedoms that is effectively on the ballot this November — and it's one of the many important reasons I'm voting for Kamala Harris — but you almost certainly don't need this blog to remind you of that.
The reason I'm bringing up this topic is because I'd like to share a radio broadcast of personal importance. Growing up, my cousins and I would occasionally talk about the time that our grandma was interviewed on NPR. Our mothers/aunts couldn't recall the exact year or the exact show on NPR. But even if the details eluded us, we did all know how much bravery she demonstrated by volunteering to be interviewed live on national radio about her experience finding, receiving, and recovering from an abortion many decades previously — before the Roe v. Wade decision.
Out of curiosity in 2019, I contacted NPR's archival staff and they helped me to pin down the date: The interview was featured on All Things Considered in 1992. The occasion was Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which was being argued at that very moment (and which has since been overturned along with Roe by Trump's Supreme Court). The interview concerns her experiences in 1962, as well as my grandpa's experiences and the doctors that they each interacted with.
I've listened to this interview a couple times in 2019 and since then, and each time I listen, I can't do so without tears in my eyes. Grandma Es (as my sister and cousins and I called her) died in 1998 — and listening to her voice brings back lovely but unfortunately fading memories. If she were here today, I'd like to introduce her to my wife and our kids. There are many topics I would wish to talk with her about. The "national situation" is way down on that hypothetical list of topics — but this is where we're all at today as a country, with this immensely consequential election approaching.
She concluded the radio broadcast with this:
I think when we were brought up, my age, we were very often brought up that women didn't speak out, that women were shrill if they spoke out, and I feel that I will best serve what happened to me and give my grandchildren a different picture — particularly my three granddaughters — if I do what I'm doing right now.
I feel I have to speak out.
So, here in 2024 is a recording from 1992 of Esther Abrams speaking softly but surely in her own words about her experiences from 1962:
This interview appeared on All Things Considered on April 22, 1992 in a segment titled "Illegal Abortions: Married Women Who Did" with hosts Linda Wertheimer and Robert Siegel. This audio content is copyright NPR. This audio content has not been modified. This audio content is not being used for commercial or promotional purposes.