Supreme Consequences

Wendy Chavkin, M.D.
July 21, 2005

Dr. Wendy Chavkin is the chair of Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health. She and other doctors who provided or facilitated abortions before Roe v. Wade share their experiences on a new website, www.voicesofchoice.org.

As much as the nomination of a new U.S. Supreme Court Justice is about individual rights and freedoms, it’s also about public health. Doctors across the country know that—but few know it as personally and profoundly as the physicians who provided or helped women gain access to abortions before Roe v. Wade .

Fourteen pre-Roe physicians issued a public statement recently, saying they fear the country will repeat “a dark chapter of its history” if Sandra Day O’Connor’s replacement opposes legal abortion—as Judge John Roberts apparently does. I am one of those 14 doctors.