My name is Betty Gunz.
In 1965 I was a junior in college and I got pregnant. My boyfriend was winsome and funny but he had bipolar disorder, an illness that was little-known in 1965. Left without treatment, he self-medicated with alcohol. It was clear to both of us that neither of us was able to be a good parent at that time. So he arranged with some acquaintances for me to get an abortion.
He and I drove to a strip mall parking lot where a stranger picked us up, blindfolded us, and drove us to the home of the man who performed abortions. They gave me whiskey as an anesthetic and inserted a catheter into my uterus. I don’t remember what else he did, but when it was over, I went back to my dorm room to wait. I bled a lot and after a few days, I had developed sepsis. I grew sicker and sicker. I was lapsing in and out of consciousness by about the 4th day. Late at night that day my boyfriend took me to a hospital emergency room.
Recognizing that I was dying, the others involved in arranging the abortion had advised him to take me out on a dark country road and leave me there. He took me to the hospital instead, an act which saved my life.
My major organs had begun to shut down and the doctors called my parents to come to the hospital to say goodbye to me. They started me on massive doses of penicillin which did begin to reverse the infection after a few days. But my kidneys had stopped working.
At that point I was transferred to a university hospital which had a very new invention, a still primitive kidney dialysis machine. Treatments were very painful but they kept me alive for the next two months while my kidneys healed and began to function again.
I spent about 3 months in the hospital. My weight dropped from 120 lb. to 80 lb. State Bureau of Investigation agents came to my hospital room while I was still hovering between life and death and questioned me.
This is the way things went before Roe v. Wade. And I’m one of the lucky ones: I survived.
And now we’re threatened with a return to those times, which really frightens me.
Legislators can’t outlaw abortion. They can only outlaw safe abortions.
I don’t want to end without saying I am grateful for that abortion. And let me say why. Despite the fact that it was a painful ordeal, that abortion allowed me to finish college, get a graduate degree, and become a practicing psychotherapist. That abortion allowed me to be a parent to my beautiful daughter, a partner to my dear husband, and a grandmother to my precious grandchildren. It was the right decision for me.
But there are some who don’t want pregnant persons to be allowed to make their own decisions. And those people have dominated the public narrative for decades with their distortions and falsehoods about abortion. We have to push back by speaking our truth. That’s why I’m doing this.
Thank you for the opportunity.
