McCormack v. Wade: A Post-Roe Case in a Pre-Roe Era
The pro-life
pro-choice debate has been a source of much discontent among the American
public as the 2012 election nears.
As more states take a conservative stance on when life begins, a woman’s
right to have an abortion is quickly dwindling, in spite of Roe v. Wade ruling
in 1973 which made abortions legal. What is lacking in the midst of this
debate, however, are the stories of real women who are being put at risk in
what is shaping up to look like a pre-Roe v. Wade era. In Nancy Hass’ Daily Beast article, “The Next Roe v. Wade?: Jennie
McCormack’s Abortion Battle,” Jennie Linn McCormack’s decision to self-induce
an abortion has turned into quite the legal battle in Idaho and has challenged
the ideals of both pro-life and pro-choice supporters. Should a woman be able to have a
self-induced abortion? When is the
fetus viable and when can it feel pain?
Should the abortion pill be prescribed to women from doctors or even
made as easy to order online?
Questions like these have arisen in response to McCormack’s case, but
the most concerning question should really be about the danger that women are
being put in when the choice to have an abortion is not an option. Throughout history, women have always
had abortions, illegally and legally, and there is no doubt that women will
continue to do so regardless of the legality. It should therefore be in the interest of the state to
protect women like McCormack, rather than putting them in harms way by putting
restrictions on abortions, particularly for women with poor socio-economic
backgrounds. Furthermore,
McCormack’s case points out that society must become more accepting of women
who choose to have an abortion.
The negative stereotypes and stigmas attached abortion isolate and
marginalize women from society more so than they already are in our patriarchal
society.[1]
In 2010,
McCormack, a small town single mom of three from Idaho, found out that she was
pregnant with another child. Due
to her financial situation, McCormack knew that she could not raise another
child properly and subject her children to life even worse off than they
already are in doing so. McCormack
was already a single mom surviving off of two hundred and fifty dollars of
monthly child support with no car or computer. The father of the child had just been arrested for robbing a
bank and her Mormon family was already unsupportive of her lifestyle. With all of these unfortunate
circumstances in mind, McCormack decided that she had to abort her fetus with
the less expensive two hundred dollar RU-486 abortion pill. McCormack called her sister in
Mississippi and explained how she needed her to order the pill off of the
Internet because she could not pay for a real abortion and she did not have the
means to travel the distance to a clinic.
After receiving and taking the pill, McCormack thought her nightmare
would be over; however, what McCormack did not realize is how far along she
actually was. It is recommended
that RU-486 be taken within the first nine weeks of pregnancy. McCormack did not know exactly how far
along she was, but she did not expect to be nine weeks or even twenty, which
became evident when the fetus was aborted. McCormack was shocked at how big the aborted fetus was and
panicked. Not knowing what to do
with the fetus, McCormack wrapped it up in bags, put it on her porch, and
called a friend. Next thing
McCormack knew, police arrived on her doorstep after being tipped off by the
friend’s sister and McCormack was brought into the station for
questioning. Shortly after McCormack’s
arrest, her case was brought to court for charges she was not aware she could
even be prosecuted for.[2]
“Although RU-486 is legal and the fetus was not yet “viable”
(that is, old enough to live outside the uterus), Idaho has a 1972 law—never
before enforced—making it a crime punishable by five years in prison for a
woman to induce her own abortion.”[3] This law is under the premise of the
fetal pain law, which allows women to have an abortion no later than nineteen
weeks to avoid pain to the fetus. Despite of the fact that it has been proven through
research that a fetus is not aware of pain until around the thirtieth week,
this law almost put McCormack behind bars for five years for inducing her own
abortion with RU-486 and there is still a chance that McCormack will face
future prosecution because her case was only dropped “without prejudice”. McCormack’s lawyer, Rick Hearn,
has since set out to challenge the fetal pain law and has gained a great deal
of recognition for his efforts.
This past September, McCormack, as advised by Hearn, became the first
woman to sue the federal court for the unconstitutionality of the law and the
right for women to take abortion-inducing medication. U.S. Judge B. Lynn
Winmill, however, responded to this lawsuit by ruling that it wasn’t worthy of
class-action status. This was
definitely a setback for McCormack and Hearn, but they are still pursuing the
case to this day.[4]
McCormack’s
case has also caused interesting controversy among pro-life and pro-choice
supporters. As of recent, there
has been a shift in who is prosecuted in cases like McCormack’s. While doctors used to be targeted for
abortion, women have become the new victims and it seems that this has caused a
rift between pro-life groups. As,
“Susan B. Anthony
List. President Marjorie Dannenfelser calls the case: ‘Not acceptable. We do
not think women should be criminalized. Criminal sanctions or any kind of
sanctions are appropriate for abortionists, and not for women.’”[5] If the pro-life movement did support
McCormack, however, they would completely go against the abortion laws they
have been battling over all this time.
From the pro-choice side, there has been a debate over who should be
prosecuted as well. Many
pro-choice supporters take up issue with the fact that laws make it nearly
impossible for doctors to provide abortions and now women too that subject both
to legal repercussions. For
pro-choice supporters, all of this sounds far too familiar to the pre-Roe v.
Wade era that put doctors and women in danger. At the same time, pro-choice supporters are at a loss when
they begin to think of the fetus on McCormack’s porch in the dead of winter.[6]
Then
there are the problems surrounding the accessibility of the pill on the
Internet in the modern age and the inaccessibility of clinics, particularly for
poor women like McCormack. With
both problems on the rise, it is not surprising that women are trying once
again to take abortion into their hands. According to Hass, nearly thirty-five
percent of American women will have abortions, while “almost 90 percent of
countries in the US and 98 percent of rural counties have no abortion
services.” Consequently, over
twenty percent of abortions are considered “medical” using the highly
effective, FDA recommended pill for ending early pregnancies.[7] Prior to the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme
Court case, in which it became legal for “a woman may terminate pregnancy up to
the point of ‘viability’, women who chose to have an abortion had to do it in,
“fear, ignorance, shame, and danger.”[8] The circumstances of performing an
illegal abortion pre-Roe v. Wade were extremely risky for every party involved,
from the woman to the doctor, and the fetus. Women who could afford it sought out doctors performing
illegal abortions in shady and potentially unsanitary offices, while other
women attempted to perform their own abortions with instruments as medically
unconventional and dangerous as a coat hanger.[9]
There is a clear historical record of what life would be like if abortions were
illegal again, yet many seem to forget that this era ever existed. Although the
pill and the Internet were not around in pre-Roe v. Wade era, the dangers women
are facing hold similar weight.
McCormack is the perfect example of what would happen if we suddenly
turned the clock back to a pre-Roe v. Wade era. Women are quick to turn to alternative options, such as the
pill that put both McCormack and the fetus in danger. This is particularly the case for women with poor
socio-economic backgrounds who do not have access to any sort of medical
support. While McCormack has
definitely challenged supporters of both pro-life and pro-choice, she has
ultimately has demonstrated that women are at a dangerous crossroads right now
as abortions become increasingly inaccessible medically and increasingly
accessible through alternative options.
McCormack’s case might have been dropped legally, but she has
faced an immense amount of humiliation and shame. The day after the police arrested McCormack, the local paper
published her mug shot in the paper.
This picture, in addition to the gossip that circulated around the case,
has turned McCormack into a recluse in her hometown. As Guy Adams writes in The
Independent:
“When Jennie Linn McCormack walks the streets of Pocatello,
the town in southern Idaho where she was born, raised, and still lives, she
attempts to disguise her face by covering it with a thick woolen scarf. It doesn't really work. In the
supermarket, people stop and point. At fast-food outlets, they hiss ‘it's her’!
In the local church, that supposed bastion of forgiveness, fire-and-brimstone
preachers devote entire sermons to accusing her of mortal sin.”[10]
McCormack cannot escape the
negative stigmas and stereotypes that have isolated and marginalized her from
society. Although McCormack does
not believe she did anything wrong, she is being treated like a full-scale
criminal, unworthy of societal recognition. When McCormack put in a request with the district attorney
to bury her fetus, she received no response. McCormack, like many other women in her shoes, is already
treated like a minority in the face of patriarchy. With more restrictions put on abortions, women who choose to
get an abortion will be further marginalized and isolated as it becomes more
frowned upon to get. Regardless of
a woman’s reasoning, humiliation and shame are now assumed to go hand in hand
with abortions. As McCormack has stated, “I never wanted to be someone public,
to make a point […] This isn’t a cause for me. I just didn’t know what to do. I
did what I thought was right for my kids, that’s all.”[11] Thus, in
order to counteract the negative stereotypes and stigmas, there needs to be a
more nuanced understanding of why women choose to get abortions and the
emotional consequences women suffer from in the aftermath. If these two understandings are taken
into consideration, it may be possible avoid another pre-Roe V. Wade era.
Works Cited
Adams,
Guy. “How an Abortion Divided America.” The Independent.
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/how-an-abortion-divided-america-6950320.html
(accessed Aprul 29, 2012).
Cooney,
Eleanor. “The Way it Was.” Mother
Jones. http://motherjones.com/politics/2004/09/way-it-was?page=1 (accessed
April 24, 2012).
Hass,
Nancy. “The Next Roe v. Wade?:
Jennie McCormack’s Abortion Battle.” The Daily Beast.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/12/11/the-next-roe-v-wade-jennie-mccormack-s-abortion-battle.html
(accessed April 24, 2012).
Robinson,
Jessica. “Idaho Woman Arrested for
Abortion is Uneasy Case for Both Sides.” NPR News.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=150312812 (accessed April
29, 2012).
“Doc-lawyer Uses Both Trades To Fight Abortion Laws.” CBS
News. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505245_162-57416917/doc-lawyer-uses-both-trades-to-fight-abortion-laws/
(accessed April 24, 2012).
[1] Hass,
Nancy. “The Next Roe v. Wade?:
Jennie McCormack’s Abortion Battle.” The Daily Beast.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/12/11/the-next-roe-v-wade-jennie-mccormack-s-abortion-battle.html
(accessed April 24, 2012).
[2] Hass, “The
Next Roe v. Wade?: Jennie McCormack’s Abortion Battle.”
[4] “Doc-lawyer
Uses Both Trades To Fight Abortion Laws.” CBS News.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505245_162-57416917/doc-lawyer-uses-both-trades-to-fight-abortion-laws/
(accessed April 24, 2012).
[5] Robinson, Jessica. “Idaho Woman Arrested for Abortion is
Uneasy Case for Both Sides.” NPR News. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=150312812
(accessed April 29, 2012).
[6] Robinson, “Idaho Woman
Arrested for Abortion is Uneasy Case for Both Sides.”
[8] Cooney, Eleanor. “The Way it Was.” Mother Jones.
http://motherjones.com/politics/2004/09/way-it-was?page=1 (accessed April 24,
2012).
[10] Adams, Guy. “How an Abortion
Divided America.” The Independent.
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/how-an-abortion-divided-america-6950320.html
(accessed Aprul 29, 2012).
[11] Hass, “The Next Roe v.
Wade?: Jennie McCormack’s Abortion Battle.”
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