Sherri Chessen, a married mother of four was the star of "Romper Room," an Arizona children's television show. She was also known as Miss Sherri when she was pregnant. She used a sedative that her husband Bob Finkbine brought from Britain to treat morning sickness.
She later found out that the drug contained thalidomide. This chemical is linked to severe birth defects. In a 1998 interview, she stated that she had poisoned herself with a drug whose names were not known.
Sherri and Bob decided not to have a child with a congenital defect in their family.
Chessen stated to a 1962 interviewer that "in all the soul-searching that I have done, it is clear that I do not believe I would be giving life to anyone." "I feel like I would be giving a type of living death."
Chessen first called the local newspaper with the promise to keep his identity secret and warn the community about the dangers of thalidomide. Phoenix was rocked by the story. Chessen's name was published, and the hospital cancelled the abortion after being threatened with legal action.
Life Magazine published Chessen's story soon. The nation began to consider the deeper issues of abortion and women's choices. Finally, a Swedish hospital offered to perform the abortion. The couple flew to Stockholm and were surrounded by a press corps that covered every detail.
Chessen was then asked by Chessen, "Now that the whole thing is over, do you still believe that you did the right thing?"
She replied, "More than ever." "I don’t know if it was my womanly intuition or the God within me that said, 'Don’t have this baby.' It wasn't. It was the right decision, and I now know why."
Numerous threats were made. While the FBI provided security for the family's safety, the Vatican condemned Chessen as a murderer and called the procedure a crime.
She replied, "It was good, it was honest, it was something any mother would do for her child to avoid suffering."
In 1998, she recalled that "I remember waking from the operation and asking the Swedish doctor if the baby was a boy or a girl." He said that it was an abnormal growth and would never be a normal child. It was an abnormal growth, which would never make a normal child.
In August of that year, Kennedy gave a kudos to Dr. Frances Kelsey from the Food and Drug Administration for keeping thalidomide in America. Kennedy stated that recent events in the United States and abroad regarding the effects of thalidomide, a new sedative, highlight the need to provide additional protection for American consumers against harmful or worthless drugs products.
Some states allowed abortion in the years following Chessen's 1962 decision. 13 states had already approved abortion when the Supreme Court declared it a Constitutional right in 1973.
Chessen lived in a world that did not have Roe's Constitutional protections. She, like all Americans, has been cast back into a world that does not have Roe's Constitutional protections. Sherri Chessen, now sixty years old and just three weeks shy of her 90th birthday, is still a little fragile but determined and determined about what's lost. She told Major Garrett on CBS News that she can't return to the willow sticks and knitting tips that women used to puncture their uteruses with. The Supreme Court might be shocked to learn that there is light in their work: They have empowered women all over the world. I feel it. It is something that my granddaughters feel. All of this is compounded by a lot of anger. We, women, will continue to repeat it over and over again: we will prevail.
Chessen's views on abortion are complex and multilayered, just like the issue itself. She considers herself pro-choice as well as anti-abortion.
Some people believe it's a type of birth control. If I get pregnant, I can have an abortion. She said, "That's not the reality about abortion." "Abortion has a terrible, ugly forelife. If you will, you might think: Can I? Do I? Many people will shed many tears. The aftermath is horrible."
Chessen stated that she didn't set out to become an abortion rights activist. "I knew nothing about abortion. My abortion was the most horrible and yet most loving thing that I did. It was a mystery to me.
Garrett asked: "What were you trying to do? To warn people about thalidomide?"
"Exactly."
"That was a frightening time."
Chessen stated that it was "very scary." "And I heard yesterday on the radio that women in this area - due to trigger laws - were being kicked out of their doctor’s offices. You know what? I feel exactly how it feels. It was 60 years ago. In 60 years it will be 60.
Chessen was fired by the TV station after her abortion. They told her that she was not fit to be around children. They gave her another show, which was less well-known. She was fired when she became pregnant again. Major, think about the irony: I didn’t have a child and I lost my wonderful, amazing 'Romper Room’ job. Yes, I had a baby and lost my wonderful, wonderful job. You can make a decision!
Terri Finkbine Arnold was seven years old when Chessen's daughter was born in 1962. They said that mommy had a bad seed in her body and that the doctors would remove it.
"All the media was there, and they had all the cameras with the old-fashioned flashbulbs which would pop and hiss. "I was terrified."
Chessen had two more kids after the abortion. Kristin Atwell, her youngest child, lives in Phoenix. Ford stated that Ford paid a heavy price for standing up for her family and herself. "But she wouldn't have me here if she did."
Chessen replied, "No, she wouldn’t be here. Because if I had to carry a child around in a bag, I mean it would have been impossible." "I never, ever, ever wanted another child."
Ford stated, "I'm thankful that my mother stood up against the state of Arizona and to the United States and found a means to determine what was best to her and her family." She is my hero.
Arden Farhi produced the story. Joseph Frandino, Editor.
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