“It took a village
It was about 1961. I was an artist. A young women newly moved to New York became part of our circle of friends. She was about 21 years old. She was the daughter of a Rabbi, and has been studying at Yeshiva University. She left that school, and had a boyfriend and became pregnant. The boyfriend wasn’t worth anything. She wanted an abortion. She couldn’t turn to her family for help.
It was dependent on a few of us to help her. First we had to find someone who would give the abortion. One of us found someone in Baltimore. We were all Manhattanites. I was newly married and not working yet. So I accompanied her on the bus to Baltimore. The person was to pick her up at the bus station. The person came and my friend went off. I went to a movie for the 3 hours or so until the agreed upon time when she returned.
We took the bus back to New York, but she was uncomfortable all that time–not a huge pain, but uncomfortable. She was staying in a place that was three flights up, and climbing stairs could aggravate the situation if there was something wrong. So a third friend found someone with a summer house on a near-by lake who made the cabin available for the weekend so that she could rest and be in a comfortable place. Several of us went with her to monitor her. After resting there, she felt better. We brought her back to New York. She was fine.
That’s what it took to make sure she had a safe abortion when it was illegal:
Someone to find the information on where she could get the safe abortion.
Someone to go with her and wait for her.
Several of us to monitor her.
-Geraldine Bichovsky
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