Feminist Speak Out

Rosie J. Day Event

Speak out against the Hyde Amendment!!!

In 1977, Congress passed the Hyde Amendment that restricted the use of federal funds to women seeking abortions. On October 3, 1977, Rosie Jimenez was the Hyde Amendment's first known fatality. On the anniversary of her death, feminists demand that the federal government repeal the loathsome Hyde Amendment. Rosie Jimenez, who represents countless other poor women and women of color, will not be forgotten.

Like other women in 17 states who depend on federal assistance, Ms. Jimenez was unable to obtain a safe, legal abortion. To receive health care she would have had to carry the baby to term. She died of a botched abortion on this day, 28 years ago in the state of Texas.

Women who serve in the military face the same unjust treatment since their health care does not cover abortions and they must pay for these from their own pockets.

This policy puts poor women at far greater peril than women of means. It could be changed easily by legislators championing the needs of women, especially poor women and women in the military. But neither the Democrats [when in control of the House and Senate] nor the Republicans have shown the initiative of speaking up for the equal rights of women across this country. In short, our government, in defiance of widespread public opinion supporting a woman's right to choose, effectively denies this choice to many women.

We continue to battle on many fronts-John Roberts is the new Chief Justi

ce of the US Supreme Court, Proposition 73, the "Parental Notification" measure is on the November ballot to try and limit a young woman's access to abortion, and the government shows no signs of ending the war in Iraq. By building a movement which connects the source of these attacks, we can win reproductive justice for all women.

Come to a speak-out on Monday, October 3, 2005 at 12:30 p.m. in front of the Women's Choice Clinic, 570 14th Street, Oakland, (across the street from the Federal Building).

Endorsed by BACORR, Radical Women, and the Socialist Party USA


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In Remembrance: Women Who Died from Illegal and Unsafe Abortions

The seven women below are just a small representation of the countless women who have died because they did not have access to safe and legal abortions. Most of these women died before Roe v. Wade offered them a safe alternative. However, women continue to die and suffer injury due to current restrictions that particularly affect young women and poor women.
Our government is now controlled by conservative leaders who are extremely hostile to women's reproductive rights. If more restrictions on abortion are enacted, and especially if Roe v. Wade is overturned, this list of lives cut short could grow to include our daughters, sisters, mothers, best friends, wives, partners, granddaughters and other special women and girls...
Clara Bell Duvall

Clara Bell Duvall
Dec. 23, 1896 - March 27, 1929
Clara Duvall, her husband and five children (ages 6 months to 12 years) were living in Pittsburgh, Pa., with her parents due to limited financial resources when she learned she was pregnant again. Clara attempted a self-abortion with a knitting needle. Her doctor, knowing she was seriously ill and in severe pain, delayed sending her to a hospital for several weeks. The Catholic hospital where she died chose to list the cause of death as "pneumonia."

Ruth Irene Friedl
Aug. 24, 1901 - Aug. 21, 1929
Denied a legal abortion though her pregnancy was diagnosed as life-threatening, Ruth Friedl attempted to self-abort by drinking a plant poison, ergot apiol. That night at the dinner table of their home in Denver, Colo., with her husband and two small children present, she collapsed and died.
Pauline Roberson Shirley

Pauline Roberson Shirley
June 22, 1910 - August 22, 1940
Pauline Shirley and her six children were living with her mother in Arizona while her husband sought work in California. After an illegal abortion, she began to hemorrhage and was hospitalized. She needed massive transfusions. While Pauline's mother searched the community for donors, Pauline bled to death.

Vivian Campbell
December 12, 1925 - May 6, 1950
Vivian Campbell was the mother of two children ages five and three. She was newly separated from her husband when she realized she was pregnant. Sending her children to stay with her parents, she sought and obtained an illegal abortion. She sent for her husband, but by the time he arrived at the hospital it was too late. She died in agony of peritonitis.

Geraldine Santoro
August 16, 1935 - June 8, 1964
The photo of Geraldine Santoro dead on a hotel room floor has become a symbol for the horror of illegal abortion. Gerri, as she was known, lived on her family farm in Coventry, Conn., with her two daughters. At the age of 28, separated from her abusive husband, she became pregnant by another man, Clyde Dixon. Afraid that her husband would kill her if he found out, she and Dixon looked for ways to terminate her pregnancy. With no other options, they attempted to perform the procedure themselves. When the operation went awry, Dixon fled, leaving Santoro behind where she bled to death. A chambermaid found her body the next morning.
Rosie Jimenez

Rosie Jimenez
1950 - Oct. 3, 1977
A single mother with a 5-year-old daughter, Rosie Jimenez of McAllen, Texas, was a scholarship student six months away from her teaching credential. She was the first known victim of the Hyde Amendment, which cut off Medicaid funding for abortion to women on public assistance-women who by the government's own definition cannot afford health care. Too poor to pay for the procedure at a private clinic, she died in agony from a botched illegal abortion.
Becky Bell

Becky Bell
August 24, 1971 - Sept. 16, 1988
At 17, Becky became a victim of an Indiana state law requiring parental consent for a minor to obtain an abortion. Unable to bring herself to disappoint her parents by telling them she was pregnant-or go before a judge to bypass the law-Becky sought an illegal abortion. When she became seriously ill, her parents rushed her to the hospital. In severe pain from a massive infection, Becky still could not tell them, and despite the efforts of the doctors, she died.