A 1970s Boston abortion case brought the Roe v. Wade decision into sharp focus

A black and white photograph of a man wearing a doctor's uniform in a hospital exam room. — FILE — Dr. Kenneth C. Edelin, 35, chief resident in obstetrics and gynecology at Boston City Hospital, continues work at the hospital, May 30, 1974, as hearings are held on charges of manslaughter in connection with the death of a fetus in an abortion.

Callie Crossley hosts Under the Radar with Callie Crossley.

May 09, 2022

I wonder if there was ever a chance that the Supreme Court’s 1973 ruling on Roe v. Wade would slow or stop the bitter debate about abortion. But the pro and anti-choice divisions have only gotten more vocal in the decades since the landmark decision. No better evidence of the heated debate than in the now-infamous leaked opinion draft signed by Associate Justice Samuel Alito. The judge, writing for the majority, declared, “ A right to abortion is not deeply rooted in the Nation’s history.”

In the week since the Washington-based news organization, Politico, published the leaked draft, anti and pro-choice supporters have taken to the streets to shout it out. As the reality set in, reenergized pro-choice activists have repledged themselves to a fight they thought they’d won.

And I’ve been thinking back to the Boston case which early on brought the meaning of the Roe decision into sharp focus.

Just months after the 1973 Supreme Court ruling, Dr. Kenneth Edelin of Boston City Hospital agreed to end the pregnancy of an unnamed Black teenager from Roxbury, who was, according to public accounts, either 17 or 18 years old. Dr. Edelin, a highly credentialed and respected gynecologist, soon found himself charged with manslaughter. Assistant Suffolk District Attorney Newman Flanagan prosecuted the case and also embodied the city’s strong anti-abortion sentiment fueled by the Catholic Church.

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Dr. Edelin died in 2013. In a 2007 Boston Globe interview, the African-American physician also noted the highly charged racial climate of 1970s Boston, saying, “It was the right place and the right time for those who wanted to make a statement. It was the wrong place and wrong time for me.”

Flanagan, himself a Catholic, won the case with an all-white jury which included 10 Catholics. And despite some fallacious testimony by one of the main witnesses, as documented in Dr. Edelin’s memoir, “Broken Justice: A True Story of Race Sex and Revenge in a Boston Courtroom.” He appealed and a year later the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court unanimously overturned the guilty verdict and upheld Roe’s protection for doctors who perform abortions. Dr. Kenneth Edelin became a lifelong pro-choice activist, including his three years chairing the Board of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

Here’s where I’m supposed to acknowledge that Judge Alito’s leaked opinion draft is a draft, not the high court’s final decision. But I am convinced that it is indeed the final decision, 50 years of precedent be damned. I also know that overturning Roe v. Wade will not stop women from seeking abortions; sparked by desperation and determination, they’ll go underground.

One year before his conviction was overturned, Dr. Kenneth Edelin told the New York Times, “Nobody likes to do abortions, but the least we can do is make it safe and humane.” He would be appalled to know that likely that right will not be protected.