A necessary rewind on a woman’s right to choose | Davis Enterprise

A necessary rewind on a woman’s right to choose | Davis Enterprise:

A necessary rewind on a woman’s right to choose

This photo of Davis families was published Jan. 22, 1987, in The Davis Enterprise as part of an ad honoring the anniversary of the 1973 Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court decision. The ad reads: "Pro choice is pro family. No one loves their children and families more than we do. And no one understands more than we that a woman's difficult decision about an unplanned pregnancy is her own." Courtesy photo

By Lyra Halprin

Ten births, three abortions — that’s what I know about my grandmother Anne. During her childbearing years, 1911 through the 1920s in Austria, Canada and the United States, it was almost impossible for women to access birth control.

She raised her children in Cleveland, where the first birth control clinic — a Planned Parenthood forerunner — opened in 1928. A woman who committed suicide by stepping off a Lake Erie pier because she was pregnant for the 10th time inspired clinic founders.

The clinic faced threats from government authorities, the Catholic Church and other religious groups, the same ones who are undermining women’s rights