Wednesday, May 17, 2006
The Girls Who Went Away
Last evening's other half of Fresh Air was also interesting. Ann Fessler knew from a young age that she was adopted. What she didn't know was that she was one of the millions of babies who were born in the days before abortion was legal. It was a time when young women who became pregnant outside of marriage were routinely shipped off to birth houses where they gave birth and then were strongly encouraged to give up their babies for adoption. Her new book, The Girls Who Went Away, tells the story of her mother and some of the other women who had this experience. You can listen to the program here. One little tidbit of information that I learned in the segment was that until the passing of Title IX in 1979, it was legal for high schools and colleges to kick pregnant women out of school. I knew it happened; I didn't know Title IX addressed that issue.
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I had a friend from my childhood days who was "a girl who went away". She was the first of several of my high school friends who got pregnant in their sophomore, junior, or senior years of high school and went away to have their babies. (Others were shipped across state lines to places to have safe and legal abortions. My high school was not big and so you knew all about these things.)
This was all 1973-1976 and was pre Title IX. As far as I know, the school didn't kick her out along others who got pregnant out of wedlock during my high school years.) After the baby was born she kept it, came back to town, married the birth father, later divorced him and remarried. Now she and her current husband have been foster parents for the past 15-20 years in addition to parenting their combined families.
If I see her when I go back to my high school reunion I will ask her more about that experience and whether the school had anything to do with it as enough time has passed that these things can now be talked about more openly.
The principal of our high school during our years there passed away last month. If he ordered my girlfriends "sent away" it can be freely talked about now.
Thanks for the link, I will listen to the program!
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