Where Was I in 1973? [EDITORIAL]

Editorial by Shannon Siebert, Heartland Beat Staff Writer

Abortion, like Medusa, continues to raise its ugly and deadly head. The recent exposure of Planned Parenthood videos discussing its practice of fetal tissue donation and monetary payments is the latest gruesome controversy over abortion. Since abortion was legalized by the Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe vs. Wade in January of 1973, a strong pro life movement has swelled, working tirelessly to chip away at it. 

Last spring a Lincoln Journal Star headline read, “Anti-abortion group targets students” describing how a Lincoln group called Abolition Society of Lincoln was targeting students at Southeast High School by handing out informational flyers and displaying graphic anti-abortion signs near the school on public property. No problems occurred and this particular anti-abortion group plans to repeat exercising their freedom of speech at other schools. No doubt with the latest brouhaha revealing the disgusting details of fetal dismemberment, the anti-abortion information and pictures will only be more powerful.   

But unlike high school students today that are regularly exposed to both sides of the abortion issue, at age 17 in 1973, I have no recollection of Roe vs. Wade and what it meant. In retrospect, I wish I’d been “targeted.”

Given the ensuing controversy and large amount of publicity Roe vs. Wade generated then and now, it puzzles me as to why I have no memory of it at all. I don’t remember the topic ever being discussed around the dinner table, nor mentioned at my church, Bear Valley Church of Christ. Maybe it was brought up in current events during a social studies class at my high school, John F. Kennedy Jr./Sr. High School located in southwest Denver, Colorado. If so, I draw a total blank. 

And it wasn’t that I was entirely clueless as a typical narcissistic teenager about the doings of the outside world. I do remember hating that wretched oil embargo! That’s because it affected me physically. Our large school cut back the heat severely during that cold Colorado winter of 1973 stretching into 1974 keeping the thermostat at around 55 degrees. It also took careful planning on my part to make sure my gas guzzling 69’ Chevy Impala had enough fuel for the week. To avoid the inevitable long lines at gas stations on weekends, I filled up at a small obscure station during the week on Arapahoe Blvd.    

And how could I ever forget Watergate! The coverup by Nixon’s administration of the bungled burglary at the Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C. was something I understood. The ensuing seemingly endless Watergate hearings would personally affect me and my siblings entire daytime summer TV habits. Eternally boring is all I can tell you about those hearings. They pre-empted our favorite daytime shows featuring John Dean, Nixon’s former legal counsel, instead of our beloved soap opera stars in “One Life to Live” and the entertaining game show “Hollywood Squares”. I have a pretty good picture of a stoic John Dean in his dark suit, looming forehead and horn rimmed glasses etched in my mind to this day.

I was very aware of the Vietnam War and its death toll as it finally wound down in 1973.  We lived in a neighborhood called Centennial Acres that bordered Ft. Logan which was originally a long time military post. It had been taken over by the state of Colorado and became Ft. Logan Mental Health Center. The original military national cemetery remained and was located right along our way to school on Sheridan Blvd. I had watched with sadness as it filled up with long symmetrical rows of matching white stones marking the loss of life in that jungle warfare.

I missed seeing the film that won the Oscar for best picture in 1973, “The Godfather” because my father forbid me from seeing it. I was annoyed and angry about his ban of the movie but I obeyed and never saw the movie. I wish I would have known enough about the ruling in Roe vs. Wade in 1973 to be angry about that as well. Maybe it was so invisible to me because there were no white gravestones to mark each abortion like at the Ft. Logan Military Cemetery.

You might think living in a metropolitan area and attending a fairly large school, I would have encountered the issue of teenage pregnancy and abortion but it barely touched my life. 

During my high school years, I knew of only one girl who became pregnant and ironically she and her family were members at my church which was considered fairly conservative during the 70’s. 

She went on attending high school and church throughout her entire pregnancy wearing a pink striped oxford long sleeve men’s dress shirt. I guess it worked pretty well for a maternity shirt and she had her baby boy that summer after her sophomore year.  Thankfully, the success of Roe vs. Wade did not factor in as a choice for her baby. With her parents’ help, she went on to finish high school and raise her son.

I was oblivious to a ruling that would grant power for mothers to choose death over life.  And when I did realize what Roe vs. Wade meant for unborn children, I was aghast at how it had slipped by me. If there is one positive result of the legalization of abortion, it is the development of a strong pro life movement. Teenagers should be the prime “targets” being made fully aware of all aspects of abortion.   

I’m not sure at 17 that I even could have comprehended the Supreme Court’s reasoning and controversial use of the 14th amendment’s due process clause as the basis for a legalizing a woman’s right to choose abortion. But I do think I could and should have sensed that it was wrong to stop a beating heart.