Time to Tell the Stories

In the early 1970s, when I worked for a child welfare agency, a Catholic colleague told me that she became prochoice the day she was called to find foster homes for five children whose mother had just died from a botched, illegal abortion. I came of political age when such stories were common, and they fueled our efforts to make abortion safe and legal. Now, a generation of women has grown up without the stories, taking for granted what once meant so much suffering.

The right of women to decide whether they will be forced to bear children can no longer be taken for granted. The recent Supreme Court decision, Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, which allows states to further restrict access to legal abortion, is part of...