TV drama puts spotlight on Roe abortion rights case

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It's not very often that we are able to witness major historical events such as Roe v. Wade, the case that led to the 1973 Supreme Court ruling legalizing abortion. The Court's landmark decision profoundly affected the lives of millions of women in this country.

It's almost as rare to see a made-for-TV program that portrays such an event in a favorable light. That is what the program "Roe vs. Wade," which was aired by NBC on May 15, was able to do.

The "real-life" Jane Roe, Norma McCorvey, is called Ellen Russell in this program and is played by actress Holly Hunter. Hunter's Jane Roe is a rough-andtumble, beer-guzzling street survivor. According to the "real-life" Sarah Weddington, Roe's attorney, this is "a fairly close portrayal."

The program begins by showing Russell at her job as a carnival barker, hawking at the animal freak show. We learn that she is pregnant with her second unwanted child. (The first child was adopted by Russell's mother.) From this point on, we begin to get a picture of life before legalized abortion-the helpless, powerless humiliation and sense of futility that women had to endure.

Inside a torture chamber Perhaps the hardest-hitting scene is when Ellen, in her desperation for an abortion, seeks out a back-alley abortionist. She enters a dim, disheveled room, scattered with various pieces of medical equipment. But the room bears a closer resemblance to a medieval torture chamber than to any modern-day medical facility.

Ellen flees for her life at the sight of this room. Her sense of frustration is that shared by all women in similar situations. She cries out, "I got no money. I got no place to go. I got nothin'. I don't want to have another baby."

Through her adoption lawyer, she is put in touch with a pair of young lawyers, Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffey. The lawyers are looking for the right plaintiff with whom to challenge the Texas law banning abortion except under special circumstances. They plan to sue Henry Wade, district attorney of Dallas, for enforcing the law and thus infringing on a woman's right to privacy in deciding to terminate a pregnancy.

The remainder of the program focuses on the courtroom battles waged between Weddington and Texas Attorney General Jay DEDICAL DICTINIART Ployd. The court hands down a surprise decision in favor of Jane Roe, but won't issue an injunction to enforce the law. Any doctor who performs an abortion still can be arrested.

Eventually, the case is fought all the way up to the Supreme Court, concluding with the historic Jan. 22, 1973, decision.

It is interesting to learn, for those of us who didn't know (myself included), that Jane Roe's actual role in the case was quite marginal and that, ironically, she was never able to take advantage of the Supreme Court 57i ruling that finally legalized abortion.

If one had to make a criticism of this show, it would be that it did not fully portray the background to the case. It might have helped us to better understand how thousands of women, like Jane Roe, had had their lives drastically altered and devastated by unwanted pregnancies.

In addition, the dramatization might have included reference to the large women's rights movement and other radical movements of the period-the demonstrations in the streets— which were instrumental in pressuring the 4/10/89 The prus mens • PRESS courts to ease up on abortion restrictions.

NBC attempted to downplay the program's political theme, aiming for an "even-handed" and "non-controversial" approach. But the network failed to appease the right-wing "prolifers," who denounced the drama as "primetime propaganda for the pro-choice movement."

The misnamed "pro-life" forces are continuing to chip away at the hard-won right to safe and legal abortion. The real pro-life forces must redouble our efforts to see that the Roe v. Wade decision is never lost.

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: V. WADE Then Mast RECONSIDER