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Published: Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Date: Feb. 5, 1999
About this cartoon: An examination of the various ways that abortion rights have been under attack around the country.
Noteworthy: A younger reader asked about the clothes hanger image. That is a good question, one that people under 30 especially might not know. In the bad old days (pre Roe vs. Wade) many women with unwanted pregnancies felt compelled to go to "back street" abortionists-- perhaps unlicensed practitioners, who in some cases used crude "tools," one of which could be a wire coat hanger twisted into some sort of imitation of a medical implement. Some of their patients suffered severe bleeding and even died. The wire coat hanger became a symbol of unsafe backstreet abortions (whether or not it was actually used much), and a visual symbol to depict pro-choice views on abortion for the past quarter-century or so.
