Slow Burn - Roe v. Wade | 1. Get Married or Go Home
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Slate
3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 1 June 2022
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In 1970, 22-year-old Shirley Wheeler got an illegal abortion in Florida. When she refused to tell the police who performed the procedure, she was arrested and charged with manslaughter. In the months that followed, she’d be prosecuted and publicly condemned. She’d also become the unlikely face of the fight for reproductive rights.
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Season 7 of Slow Burn is produced by Susan Matthews, Samira Tazari, Sophie Summergrad, and Sol Werthan.
Derek John is Sr. Supervising Producer of Narrative Podcasts.
Editorial direction by Josh Levin, Derek John and Johanna Zorn. Mixing by Merritt Jacob and Kevin Bendis.
Our theme music is composed by Alexis Cuadrado. Artwork by Derreck Johnson based on a photo provided by Robert Wheeler.
The season’s reporting was supported by a grant from the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Howard G. Buffett Fund for Women Journalists.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This podcast contains some graphic language and a mention of sexual assault. |
| 0:07.0 | Nancy Stern's never planned on being a lawyer. |
| 0:11.0 | She didn't think she was smart enough. |
| 0:13.0 | But in the early 1960s, she saw something that changed her mind. |
| 0:19.0 | When I was in college, there was a TV program called The Defenders |
| 0:26.0 | that was about lawyers who did constitutional cases. |
| 0:32.0 | The Defenders was a black and white courtroom drama. |
| 0:36.0 | Long before a law in order, it told stories ripped from the headlines. |
| 0:40.0 | What did you see? |
| 0:42.0 | The doctor was bending over a girl. |
| 0:44.0 | She was lying on a table and he was operating on her. |
| 0:47.0 | Objection. The surgeon is not a medical expert. |
| 0:50.0 | He doesn't know what the doctor was doing. |
| 0:52.0 | In one episode from 1962, the lawyers represent a doctor who's on trial for providing illegal abortions. |
| 1:00.0 | His patients are called to testify. |
| 1:03.0 | Mr. Albert, you were the person on Dr. Montgomery's operating table |
| 1:07.0 | when the police broke into the office. |
| 1:10.0 | Yes. |
| 1:11.0 | Did you go to that office for the purpose of obtaining an illegal operation? |
| 1:15.0 | Yes. |
| 1:16.0 | I knew people who needed abortions. |
| 1:18.0 | God knows, I went through periods when I wondered whether I would need one. |
... |
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