The nationwide effects of the 2022 overturn of Roe v Wade -- the federal law won in 1973 by feminists that made abortion safe and legal for 50 years -- are continuing to be documented and it's not a pretty picture. While loss of this crucial right affects the ability of ALL women to control their own reproductive lives, abortion being made illegal or severely restricted in as many as 22 states, is a situation that  poses potentially  devastating risks for those women who are pregnant and seeking to bring the pregnancy to term -- but whose pregnancies have run into medical complications.

Pregnancies that go wrong frequently require that an abortion be performed  to save the life of the mother, but the atmosphere of fear that surrounds doctors in states where abortion is banned "except to save the life of the mother" -- doctors who still have to make the decision of when an abortion is warranted -- may face professional or criminal penalties if that decision is deemed 'wrong' by unaccountable 'authorities'. In such an atmosphere it is predictable that many doctors will be too afraid to administer life saving healthcare, and as a result, women will die. And this is exactly what has been happening across a wide swath of the U.S.

Our guest today, Professor Carrie N. Baker, who teaches in the "Program for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality" at Smith College, has written an article for Ms. Magazine, entitled: "Abortion Bans are Killing Pregnant Women -- Say Their Names". She has assembled the facts  known so far about the women who have died in the U.S. since the overturn of Roe v Wade because lifesaving abortion and other pre-natal care were refused them by fearful doctors. In this interview, and in her article, she tells us the names of these women and the medical emergency each one faced. It is estimated that, so far, in states banning abortion, 59 women have lost their lives because of being denied the emergency care that they needed.

In Part 2 of our show, we will feature an interview with scholar and activist Carol Giardina, who will fill us in on how the right to legal abortion in the U.S. was won in the first place and the powerful lessons for how to get our rights back, which knowing this history can teach us.

CARRIE BAKER BIO

Carrie N. Baker, J.D., Ph.D., is the Sylvia Dlugasch Bauman Chair of American Studies and a professor in the Program for the Study of Women and Gender at Smith College and a contributing editor for Ms. magazine, writing regularly on women’s legal rights and feminist activism.

CAROL GIARDINA BIO

Carol Giardina began making referrals to then illegal abortions from her college dorm in 1963. In 1968, she was fired from her job for participating in the 1968 Miss America Pageant Protest as a member of Gainesville Women's Liberation, a group she cofounded with Judith Brown. Today she is a member of Redstockings and National Women's Liberation. She teaches U.S. hireedstory and women's studies at Queens College and recently published the book 'Freedom for Women: Forging the Women's Liberation Movement, 1963-1970'. She speaks as a 1960's activist who is as active today as she was in the 60's--an activist-scholar.