Unwanted Children

contributed by Esther Eisenberg From the September 7 Abortion Rights Hearings sponsored by NOW and Emergency Abortion Task Force

This summer I saw a sticker on a car saying, "Protect Unborn Children". I said, "How perfect for a theme to support abortion." My girlfriend said, "Silly, that's a Right-to-Life slogan." I made up my mind that, no, that really is the reason to support abortion rights, to protect unborn children in observance of the sanctity of life.

A few years ago I volunteered in pediatrics at Mt. Sinai Hospital. One evening as I went on duty, I saw a tiny baby in a crib. I paid no attention until I was told that she was a 16-month old failure to thrive. I was shocked. My own neice was also 16 months old. This baby had no hair on the back of her head because she had never been moved, and couldn't turn over. Poor Annie had the weight and size of a newborn. She was frail and helpless, without even a cry. My own niece was a hearty little beast with a loud vocabulary. She walked, could feed herself (in her fashion) and could

climb a five-foot stepladder. I mourned for this little Annie in the hospital and wondered what would become of her,

Last year I found out. I was assigned to work with Janie, a 14-year old girl in a $16,000 a year treatment center. She had been born illegitimately and not wanted. At six weeks her mother left her with her father and his wife. Now the children at the school

Rape Crisis Center

contributed by Jeanne Van Atta

It was a boring Wednesday night and Sarah went to bed early hoping to be fresh at work the next day. She was planning to ask for a raise and she drifted off to sleep thinking of ways to approach her boss with the question. She had left the light on in the living room of her apartment as an attempted safety precaution since she lived alone.

It seemed like the middle of the night when Sarah woke up feeling as if she couldn't breathe. She opened her eyes and groggily noticed that the light seemed to be out. Then a wave of shock and terror passed through her body when she saw a knife at her throat and the large silhouette of a man behind it.

Sarah called the Rape Crisis Center about a week after she was attacked. She was sitting at home that night alone and dupressed, and still frightened by her experience when she decided to call the hotline. The man on the hotline was able to locate a woman who lived close to Sarah and she went to see her that same evening. She was finally letting some of her fears and anger out and admitted that she was afraid to stay there alone. The volunteer stayed and talked for hours and was finally joined by another volunteer who spent the night.

Sarah went to the hospital Kaiser on her own the night of the attack. The doctors, perhaps unfamiliar with rape cases, did not try to obtain evidence from the exam. They also prescribed the morning after pill DES (diethylstilbestrol) without conveying any of its possible dangers or side effects. (DES causes nausea and general discomfort to women. What is more important to know is that DES has been proven to be a cause of vaginal or cervical cancer in the female offspring of a woman who has taken the drug. The Rape Crisis Center does not recommend the use of this drug for any reason), Sarah said she left the medical facility without having any idea what tests were taken and without any warnings from them that follow-up exams for either V.D. or preg nancy would be necessary. Two months later she has not been able to find out exactly what tests were made there. Luckily for her, at the

last minute one of the nurses noticed some bruises on her neck and pointed them out to the doctor who then included them on the med ical report.

Sarah did report the crime to the police and they met her at her apartment when she returned from the hospital. They took a report from her, looked around for a possible place of entry and then left, telling her that a policewoman would come for an interview the next day. The policewoman did not come the next day nor the next week. In fact it wasn't until over three weeks later that she finally had an interview with the policewoman. The same volunteer who went to Sarah's house when she called the hotline accompanied her for the interview. She was informed by another volunteer on the hotline of the side effects caused by the use of DES, and was advised to return for V.D. and pregnancy tests. It is important to mention here that a blood test is not enough in the detection of V.D. A blood test will show signs of syphilis but not gonorrhea. Though most women get the blood test, few have a culture taken during a pelvic exam for the detection of gonorrhea.

Facing the possibility that she might be pregnant, Sarah has been given abortion counseling and general counseling to help her decide what to do next. The Rape Crisis Center has established an agreement with Preterm Clinic, 10900 Carnegie, and they will perform abortions for rape victims without charge.

While the drawstring for Rape Crisis volunteers is the hotline, other efforts are equally as important. Screening has been done to find doctors, psychiatrists and lawyers who understand the problems faced by a victim of sexual assault so that they can be called on for referrals. If volunteers feel that a person's problems go beyond their ability as concerned non-professionals, they refer them to the needed area of help. Also education efforts are underway to help to make those involved in courtroom proceedings in the emergency room and on the police force more aware of the unique problems faced by an assault victim. In the past, many victims have not been taken seriously and have been abused psychologically by the very persons

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called her "spider monkey" because of the wild way she ran about screaming and the frantic spider-like clawing in the air. She is a night rocker who cries and sings and rocks herself in bed every night until at last she falls asleep. Jane can best be described as having skinny hair, as if all her energies are used elsewhere, and she has none left for growing hair. Worst of all is her frightened mind. This girl who was formerly thought to be retarded, now shows herself to be obviously a genius, but her schoolwork shows her to have an I.Q.of at best, 65. Her psychiatrist says "Children are not meant to be dragged into this world by their ears." Jane had been swung by her ears, which have all the cartilage broken and are misshapen; she was also swung by her arms until they were both dislocated. Worst of all is her poor, lovely little mind. Given such sterile soil to grow in, Jane will have the fight of her life to not spend the rest of it in a state mental hospital. As much as I love this girl, I would hate to have it resting on my conscience to have forced her to be born into a world that vented its hate on her merely because she was born unwanted.

Bob is something the opposite. He is tall, blond, blue-eyed, vivacious. He has an appeal that makes him immediately loved. Seemingly he is perfect. Certainly the dream child of adoptive parents. But, Bob was abandoned at birth and put in a foster home. There he was lost. At age two and a half he was declared emotionally unfit for adoption. He was put in the county receiving home and again lost. At age 11 he was put in a foster home. It was found to be inappropriate. He was placed in another foster home, but when he began making attacks on other boys, he was sent to a mental hospital. Bob feels no one can ever want him. He feels he is worthless. No one can yet dissuade him.

Marci was the result of an unwanted teen-age pregnancy with a shotgun-type marriage to "give the child a name." For her whole childhood, every argument she heard between her parents had her father yelling, "If you hadn't caught me with that brat I wouldn't be here today." He ranted how all his dreams were destroyed, his education stopped and how he was stuck in a dead-end job because of his wife's untimely pregnancy. Marci married early and wrong. Her husband divorced her. She abandoned her children. She feels like a nothing, an unwanted, and spends all her energies proving her father is right: She never should have been born.

I could go on and on, but I won't. I'll merely ask, what did we prove by a society that demanded these children be born unwanted? is all the money being spent in all the mental hospitals enough to make life worth it for these children? Life without love is no life at all. Until we can promise children love, we have no right to force them to live.

Midnight Special/cps

page 3/What She Wants/December, 1974