The coat hanger is a symbol of dangerous abortions in pre-Roe America, when women were forced to use household objects to terminate unwanted pregnancies
A person holds a metal coat hanger, a symbol of the reproductive rights movement, with the words “Keep Abortions Safe” outside Lloyd D George Federal Courthouse in protest the overturning of Roe vs Wade by the US Supreme Court, in Las Vegas, Nevada. AFP
In the United States, protests have spread across the country after the Supreme Court overturned the historic Roe vs Wade ruling, denying millions of women the right to abortion. Amid the outpouring of anger and grief, the court hanger has emerged as a symbol of protest.
Women on the social media platform TikTok have been sending coat hangers to the US top court since May when the draft opinion suggesting Roe would end was leaked.
What is the significance of the coat hanger?
The coat hanger has been used as a symbol to represent unsafe and self-induced abortions. There have been instances of women dying because of unsafe practices in the absence of medical services.
Abortion-rights activists have used coat hangers as representations of attacks against their bodily autonomy. It’s a reminder of an earlier time when abortions were illegal in America and women were forced to use at-home remedies to deal with unwanted pregnancies.
A woman holds a metal coat hanger as abortion rights activists march from Washington Square Park to Bryant Park in protest of the overturning of Roe vs Wade by the US Supreme Court, in New York. AFP
What are coat hanger abortions?
It refers to unsafe abortion practices, using household objects or homemade concoctions in the absence of legal or safe access. It could be something as dangerous as inserting a hanger’s wire into the cervix to terminate a pregnancy.
In a book titled When Abortions Was a Crime, author Leslie Regan writes about a woman who took ergotrate, then castor oil and squatted in scalding hot water before drinking Everclear alcohol in 1954, according to a report in The Atlantic. “When these methods failed, she hammered at her stomach with a meat pulverizer before going to an illegal abortionist,” she says.
Have there been recent instances of such abortions?
The most recent instance occurred in the US in 2015. In December 2015, a 31-year-old woman from Tennessee, Anna Yocca, was charged with attempted first-degree murder for allegedly trying to use a coat hanger to end her pregnancy. It’s a horrifying story that throws light on the what happens when women have no access to safe and legal abortions
The coat hanger abortion is the symbol of pre-Roe v Wade America, where thousands of women died or were left maimed because they were desperate to end unwanted pregnancies, reports Vox.
When was the coat hanger first used?
The coat hanger was used as a protest symbol in April 1969, years before the Roe v Wade ruling. At least three lakh protesters marched in Washington with coat hangers around their necks, holding signs that read “Never Again”.
In 2012, after the Republican Party approved a convention platform plank opposing abortion in all cases, the news portal Huffington Post published the image of a clothing hanger on its website. This was followed by the Tumblr belonging to the magazine Newsweek, which converted the cursor of the mouse on its homepage to an image of a tiny coat hanger.
In December 2016, people protested against Ohio’s ultrasound abortion bill, which banned abortions at six weeks, by putting coat-hanger signs on the statehouse fence. Some sent wire hangers to the governor.
Ahead of Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation in 2018, Senator Susan Collins’ office reportedly received 3000 coat hangers.
What about the recent protests?
In May, when a draft opinion of the Supreme Court ruling suggesting the scrapping of Roe v Wade was leaked, TikTok user Katarina Nowack uploaded a video, that showed her ordering six wire coat hangers. She shipped them to the Supreme Court in Washington DC and called on her followers to do the same.
“Essentially, an unwanted pregnancy would destroy my life,” Nowack told NBC News. “I wanted the Supreme Court to see exactly what type of future they are creating.”
What Nowack did soon caught on and thousands of women sent coat hangers to the US Supreme Court as a symbol of protest.
After Friday’s ruling, women have been seen at marches holding posters with coat hangers drawn on them, wearing coat hanger necklaces and more.
With inputs from agencies
Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,
India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.