Found in the Times

The Public Editor responded to complaints that there wasn't enough coverage of this year's National Right-to-Life protest, on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. She can speak for herself, but I was fascinated by a reader email that she quoted. This is in the last paragraph of a several-paragraph quotation:

It is extraordinary that it was not properly reported, given that abortion is still a topic of intense public and political debate, 41 years after its introduction into the US.

Wow. Here we've got a Times reader who thinks that abortion in the US started in 1973 with Roe v. Wade. I suppose it's possible that he or the Times omitted the word "legal,' but there's been abortion in the US for as long as there have been women. You can see plenty of evidence of abortion in 19th c. newspaper advertisements. You can see evidence of abortion in the five thousand women who died annually from illegal abortions before Roe legalized the procedure - which now has an extremely low complication and death rate.

Making abortion legal and keeping it legal and readily available saves the lives of women, who will go to great lengths to end unwanted pregnancies.