Feminism | Posted by Marie L on 01/24/2011

In Honor of the Anniversary of Roe v. Wade

My awareness of Roe v. Wade goes back to high school (a few years ago) when in a 12th grade English class we were given a list of important events that occurred from 1960 through present day. We were told to investigate and report on one event as “unbiased news journalists.” The supreme court decision of Roe v. Wade was on the list, and I picked it as my research topic. At the time, I had a very scant inkling of what Roe v. Wade was. From what I can remember, I only knew that it meant women were free to choose child-free lives, and at the time, with four siblings, I was all about never having kids – -so Roe v. Wade it was!

I didn’t know squat about the topic, so I researched and researched until my eyes practically bled. I found a lot of disturbing images and rhetoric, a lot of honest advice and scientific data, and a lot of different philosophies surrounding the controversy. Once I had all of my information gathered, I started on the next part of the project, which was to tape interviews of your classmates on their opinion of your topic. Several of my friends were pro-choice and begged me to let them have their say on camera. I picked two of my friends – a boy and a girl – who both declared it was the individual’s right to choose and Roe v. Wade should be upheld.

To counter my friends’ opinions, I found the most prominently religious student in my class. I chose a boy whose family had intervened when he was supposed to be in sex ed, closely monitored his relationship with a girl who he had met in church, and even gave him a bible to carry around school at all times. I also interviewed a boy in my class who considered himself “a vanilla gangsta.” That’s really what he called himself.

To my surprise, “Vanilla” was staunchly opposed to abortion, citing that he was adopted as a baby and had his birth mother chosen abortion, he wouldn’t be alive. Mr. Religious, who all my friends touted as a “bible thumping twit,” also shocked me. As the camera panned from all the previous interviews and landed on his face, everyone in my class stiffened. Some people snickered and others looked on with absolute fear at what he would say. Even the teacher raised his eyebrows.

When the question “What’s your opinion of Roe v. Wade?” was posed, he looked directly at me and said, “While I’m personally against it, I don’t feel like I have a right to infringe on the lives of others. It’s not up to me to judge”.

With that statement, the class somehow deflated. They were expecting a production of religious fervor, complete with crying and citing biblic passages from the religious kid and a speech of support from Vanilla. Instead the interviews reflected the wide range of opinions that surround this topic and showed that you never can tell how somebody is going to feel about it.

All I can say is I’m grateful for Roe v. Wade. Truly, I am. While I hope I will never be faced with this decision, I think we need to be able to have the choice if we want to think of ourselves as a modern society of free thinkers, and acting agents of ourselves.

In honor of the anniversary of Roe v. Wade (which was officially January 22nd), check out Amplify’s Roe v. Wade blog-a-thon.

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