Before arriving at Brown, I had never even heard of a coathanger abortion. Although I knew that abortion hadn't been legal until Roe v. Wade, I had never really contemplated abortion access before 1973. I guess I just naively assumed that when abortion wasn't an option, women always unwillingly carried their pregnancies to term.
My sophomore year, however, I remember watching a documentary film that detailed horrific medical consequences of the illegal abortions. The harrowing images remain etched in my memory; since attending that screening, I have become an active member of Students for Choice and have attempted to inform the rest of the Brown community about the importance of securing women's reproductive freedom. Members of our generation have not personally experienced a world without legalized abortions. Many Brown students arrive on campus defining themselves as pro-choice, but areuneducated about the history of reproductive rights.
SFC attempts to bridge this generation gap through its annual "Coathanger Campaign." During this campaign, we string hundreds of wire coathangers across the Main Green and display statistics about the thousands of women who died from and were injured by self-induced and botched abortions, hoping that the image of the coathanger will shock the Brown community and raise awareness on campus about the importance of abortion access.
Recent events, however, demonstrate that SFC was perhaps naive to assume that all Brown students would view our display with the same degree of seriousness. Members of the Brown men's crew team apparently found it appropriate to represent the University at Head of the Charles, a major race wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the image of a coathanger on one sleeve. The symbol was placed on the shirt in reference to a "hilarious" inside joke amongst members of the team about coathanger abortions. I have since learned that Brown even has its own Facebook group, the "Alternative Contraception Club," that displays a coathanger as its symbol and that advocates "coathanger abortions," "pushing her down a flight of stairs" and "a good kick in the stomach" as viable forms of "alternative contraception."
The members of the team that wore these shirts have since been reprimanded by their coach, and the captains have issued a public apology. Plenty of Facebook groups make inflammatory and politically incorrect statements in their profiles; the Facebook is hardly a beacon of good taste. This piece is not intended to assign blame or to incite controversy, but rather to discuss the larger issues.
While the pro-life movement relies upon graphic images of fully-gestated fetuses in order to focus the abortion debate on fetal rights, the pro-choice movement has not developed an equally compelling symbol. Even though pro-choice supporters could counter these images by displaying grotesque photos of women who died pre-Roe, the movement refuses to be reduced to the same level as the opposition. The coathanger is the closest we have come to developing an image that adequately captures the importance of securing a woman's right to choose.
The image of a coathanger, however, evidently still fails to measure up when compared to the outrage invoked by an oversized poster of a third-trimester fetus. When we undermine the strength of the coathanger as a symbol, we weaken the authority of one of the only images used by the pro-choice movement to commemorate the women who died pre-Roe.
As the public begins to contemplate the possibility that Roe will be overturned, the coathanger might once again become the compelling image that will shock the pro-choice community into action. Our generation wasn't alive before Roe v. Wade and Emergency Room medical residents no longer watch women die from self-induced and botched abortions. The image of the coathanger, in this context, could become one of our strongest symbols in mobilizing public support for legalized abortions.
I don't pretend to know whether those people who joke about coathanger abortions define themselves as pro-choice. Regardless of their beliefs about reproductive rights, by treating coathanger abortions as a joke, these individuals devalue women's lives. I am aware that not all Brown students are going to fight for women's reproductive freedom. Pro-choice Brunonians, however, should not simply sit back and watch one of the strongest pro-choice symbols be undermined for the sake of comedy.
Jennifer Keighley '06 is a Political Science concentrator.
