Media Coverage of
Roe v Wade in 1973
In 1973, the United States was on a quest for peace in the Vietnam; the Miami Dolphins won the Super Bowl; former president Lyndon B. Johnson died of a heart condition; and the Supreme Court ruled on Roe v. Wade, changing the course of history for women. Reproductive rights remain a controversial topic today. Women currently face challenges based on the patriarchal ideologies that dominate the nation’s society and culture. Historically, women faced more severe and blatant forms of discrimination, often being criticized or simply ignored altogether. The year 1973, as a product of the civil rights movement and the beginnings of the feminist movement, was a monumental year for women. Roe v. Wade, a landmark case, was ruled in favor of women’s rights, and as such, the ruling received large amounts of media coverage. Coverage of the ruling was translated in various forms by various types of news media. Primary sources from 1973 provide historically accurate examples of Roe v. Wade coverage, and secondary sources offer insight to the impact of the ruling on the nation and the role media played in the public’s understanding and interpretation of the new abortion law. Although each type of media is unique, radio, television, newspapers, and magazines provide both objective and editorial content to cover the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling as news and to address its impact on the people of the United States.
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On January 22, 1973, the radio, like most news media, was dominated by reports of Lyndon B. Johnson’s death, which took precedence over reports of Roe v. Wade, which received its final ruling on that same day. Radio broadcasts presented Roe v. Wade as secondary news, just as newspapers placed it secondary to Johnson’s death. The court ruling was discussed on broadcast news briefly and even more scarcely on the radio. Given that journalism was extremely male-dominated in the decade of Roe v. Wade, the ruling was announced and discussed as news mostly by men. It is important to recognize that males, who biologically cannot experience firsthand the biological process of pregnancy at any stage, were mostly the sources of news on a ruling that addresses women’s health and reproductive rights. This is evident in Minnesota Public Radio’s February 6, 1973 broadcast in which an unidentified doctor refers to the ruling as “morally and ethically wrong” and summarizes the court’s decision “pure madness” (MPR). He further compares abortion practices to slaughterhouse practices and asserts that he will resign from his medical profession if he is expected to perform abortions (MPR). Minnesota Public Radio’s report exemplifies the filtered reporting of the abortion ruling, given its dependence upon a male interviewee who is harshly critical of the Supreme Court’s ruling and the practice of abortion in general.
Dissimilarly, CBS Radio News is a briefer and more informative account of the ruling, which includes statements from both males and females with various opinions about the law (CBS). BBC Radio positions a short report of the ruling between discussions of young Vietnamese people who has known nothing but war, President Nixon’s forty-minute speech about the war, the communist soldiers, and of course, Lyndon B. Johnsons death (BBC). Still, BBC includes violently biased terms like “abortion mill” and “abortion on demand” in its coverage (BBC). On the radio, despite the ruling not being considered as top-tier news, it is evident that it sparked passionate, though biased, reactions from the United States public of 1973. Unlike radio, television broadcasts were generally more objective in their coverage of the Roe v. Wade ruling, and although they did include criticisms, they were paired with factual support, offering more of an all-encompassing approach to reporting on the ruling.
The Supreme Court ruling of the Roe v. Wade trial was nationally broadcasted via television in 1973. Court proceedings, along with commentary and debate, were broadcast on C-SPAN in December of 1971, shortly before the Supreme Court made its decision in January. The broadcast includes arguments which asserted that Texas abortion laws were unconstitutional. Sarah Weddington, the Roe attorney, stated, “First, the law was impermissibly vague; and second, that it violated a woman's right to determine to continue or terminate a pregnancy” (“Roe v. Wade 1971 Oral Argument”). At this time in history, the Texas state law allowed abortions only if it was necessary to save the life or maintain health of the pregnant woman. Roe v. Wade was centered around changing that law, not only in Texas but nationally. Roe argued for an expansion of the law, and “based her claim on the concept of personal liberty found in the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment, the right to privacy protected by the Bill of Rights, and its penumbras” (“Abortion” 394). The Supreme Court handed down a ruling that favored Roe’s ideals, declaring that abortion is a private matter to be decided by the pregnant woman and her doctor within the first three months of pregnancy.
This case was discussed on television in 1973, via C-SPAN and nearly every other major national and local broadcast news outlets at the time. A January 22, 1973 video source which covered the Roe v. Wade decision is the “Evening News with Walter Cronkite” on CBS. The broadcast, which aired on the date of the court declaration, focuses on details of the court. It provides illustrations of the court proceedings, and it mentions specifics such as the names of the two justices who held dissenting opinions – Justice Byron White and Justice William Rehnquist (“1973 CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite”). The news anchor provides a completely objective, factual depiction of the Supreme Court proceedings in detail, although the source also includes interviews with people of various beliefs, including a Catholic priest and a Planned Parenthood doctor (“1973 CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite”). What makes this broadcast especially interesting is that it includes an interview with “Mary Doe,” the plaintiff in Roe v. Wade’s sister case, Doe v. Bolton, although her face and personal information is never revealed to viewers. Furthermore, the broadcast addresses public objections to the decision, quoting the Arch-Bishop of New York as calling it “a shocking action,” as well as a Philadelphia priest who called it “an unspeakable tragedy” (“1973 CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite”). Nevertheless, the news anchors themselves remain objective while bringing to light both positive and negative opinions of the Roe v. Wade outcome.
Alongside CBS and C-SPAN, NBC also highlighted the Roe v. Wade decision in its January 22, 1973 broadcast. This television broadcast features Betty Rollin as a NBC correspondent, who describes the law as shocking and includes statements about how it may affect women (“Flashback: 1973 report on Roe v. Wade”). The main focus of the broadcast is on the objection of the Catholic church to the legalization of abortion, quoted and summarized by Betty Rollin, the only female professional to appear on television to report on Roe v. Wade.
Unlike Mary Doe, Jane Roe was most likely interviewed off camera, and her attorney spoke on her behalf to public media outlets. Based on the variety of television sources, as well as reproductions of them, it can be concluded that media coverage of Roe v. Wade reached a massive and diverse audience. The case itself was polarizing and multifaceted. As discussed in the C-SPAN debates, there are specific medial limitations to abortion procedures, which will be considered not only by the woman but also by individual states, hospitals, and physicians (“Roe v. Wade 1971 Oral Arguments”). It is not by accident that Roe v. Wade is considered a landmark case, and its impact is evident based on its television coverage, in a decade when television was still a somewhat new and enticing source of information. Overall, the medium of television portrayed the case well, due to its ability to combine audio, video, visual art, and narration. Still, television coverage of Roe v. Wade was not nearly as widespread as newspaper coverage, which was the most prominent and thorough source of information on the ruling.
National newspapers, specifically The New York Times and The Washington Post, included reports and opinions about Roe v. Wade throughout their pages. The New York Times’ January 23, 1973 issue prominently displays the ruling of the Roe v. Wade court case, so much so that the only larger headline on the front page is an announcement of the death of Lyndon B. Johnson. Of the twelve articles covered on the front page, three of the articles cover the Roe v. Wade ruling, two cover Johnson’s death, and all other articles report on separate subjects. Although more articles are dedicated to the court case, not one photograph accompanies the coverage; in fact, only one article covering the death of Johnson showcases a photograph. One Roe v. Wade article is positioned in the top left-hand corner of the front page, a central focus point for newspaper readers.
Most of the coverage focuses on the facts that accompanied the ruling of the court case. This includes excerpts from the majority opinion of the justices and the subsequent effects of the new law on the nation. The headline “Excerpts from the Abortion Case” includes reasoning from the majority opinion, which reads, “we need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins. When those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy, and theology are unable to come to a consensus, the judiciary…is not in a position to speculate as to an answer” (Blackmun 20). Alongside this coverage is a photograph of Justice Harry A. Blackmun, and the only other photograph printed alongside coverage of the case is of Cardinal Cook, who had publicly expressed his dissatisfaction of the ruling. Interestingly, The Times’ coverage of this Supreme Court ruling, which first and foremost considered the female population, is never accompanied by photographs of women. There are some comments in favor of the ruling, but only one was given by a woman. It characterizes the court ruling as “[a] tribute to the coordinated efforts of women’s organizations, women lawyers, and all women throughout this country.” (Van Gelder 20). Surprisingly, no name follows this quote; instead the newspaper states that it is commentary by “women lawyers from the Center for Constitutional Rights” (Van Gelder 20). Still, The New York Times printed expansive coverage of the Roe v. Wade ruling and included multiple sources of information on the topic as well.
Another national newspaper, The Washington Post, placed one article that showed coverage for the ruling of the Roe v. Wade case on the front page. Again, the story appears in the top left corner, where viewers’ eyes naturally gravitate while reading. However, the headline of the article is equitable to others on the page and therefore does not appear so prominent. In fact, the other large or equally displayed articles deal with coverage of men in the news, ranging from the Paris expeditions of Henry Kissinger to the death of Lyndon B. Johnson to the success of a heavyweight competitor named Foreman (The Washington Post A1).
The Post’s “Supreme Court Allows Early-Stage Abortions” article goes into detail about the Supreme Court’s ruling on the case, and it also includes statements made by some Catholic cardinals, which denounce the ruling as an “unspeakable tragedy for the nation” (MacKenzie 1). Surprisingly, this edition of The Washington Post does not dedicate any more space in the paper to further cover this prominent news. The Roe v. Wade coverage does not receive any further designated articles on the front page; instead, the Post simply combines the objective coverage of the ruling with the cardinals’ statements denouncing it. There is another article, though not front-page news, which appears further inside the contents of the newspaper, alongside a continuation of the article from the front page (Barker A2). This article details the various views of supporters of the ruling as well as those who opposed it. Distinctly titled “Abortion Backers Hail Ruling; Foes Pledge Continued Fight,” this article appears in The Washington Post. It is written by a female reporter, which is appropriate and significant because subject matter of abortion legality is so female-driven (Barker A2). The quotes in this article are all cited as quotes from organizations and thus provide no distinct names of the women giving the quotes. For example, “The Woman’s National Abortion Action Coalition, a group that has staged pro-abortion demonstrations in many major cities, called the court ruling ‘a tremendous victory for the abortion movement’” (Barker A2). In fact, most of the articles in these national newspapers – The Washington Post and The New York Times – focus on groups on women rather than individual women. Like national news publications, local newspapers also covered the Supreme Court ruling to great extent.
Following its coverage in national newspapers, Roe v. Wade made headlines in many local newspapers throughout the country. Although the Supreme Court decision received attention in all states, the following research focuses on local Texas newspapers, since this is the birthplace of “Roe,” and Tennessee newspapers, which are local to this team of historians. In both Texas and Tennessee newspapers, articles discussing Roe v. Wade are widely dispersed throughout the various news, interest, politics, and opinions sections. Most of the news articles were retrieved from national correspondents, such as The New York Times News Service. Unsurprisingly, there is an evident imbalance between fact-based and opinion-driven writing in the local publications, with the opinions severely outweighing the facts. Nevertheless, local newspapers are nearly indispensable and nearly innumerable in studying the coverage of Roe v. Wade in 1973 and 1974.
The list of Texas newspapers with reports on the 1973 ruling is expansive because of the expansiveness of the state itself and most likely because of the closeness state residents felt to the case. The Brownwood Bulletin’s June 3, 1974 edition follows its initial headline with an article entitled “Court passes on abortion,” with the subtitle “…Issues concerned consent of family,” reprinted from a Washington-published Associated Press report (AP1). The story is interspersed with various legal cases and analyses of future weather in Brownwood, Texas. Another Texas newspaper, The Abilene Reporter-News, also relies on the Associated Press to cover the ruling, printing an article entitled “Supreme Court Approves Abortion” alongside a list of local deaths and funerals. However, there is a short article by a local man about Austin, Texas Representative Sarah Weddington’s reaction to the ruling, which was, reportedly, “ecstatic” (Bureau 3A). Aside from these more prominent news features detailing Roe v. Wade, most of the Texas newspapers have them more discreetly placed. For example, The Brownsville Herald printed “Hill Says Legislature Can’t Outlaw Abortions” in the small corner of a page consisting of a massive advertisement for “Back to School Savings” (The Brownsville Herald 3A). This is not the only instance in which Roe v. Wade stories and advertisements for stereotypically female products are situated on the same page. In Tennessee newspapers, there is also a trend of discreet placement of articles covering the case, and in fact, there was no front-page headline about Roe v. Wade in any Tennessee publication in 1973.
Local Tennessee newspapers offer much more regarding actual local coverage of Roe v. Wade than the aforementioned Texas publications. Although there were far fewer Tennessee newspapers in print and in circulation, they do contribute significantly to the case’s coverage and the study of its coverage. The Kingsport Times’s February 23, 1973 publication included an article entitled “First U.S. Abortion Law – Medical Not Moral Issue.” This article is not only written by a local Johnson, City, Tennessee reporter, but it also relies upon a local black female professor at Tennessee State University, for reporting material (Jolly 10). Overall, the Tennessee papers reflect a more progressive approach to Roe v. Wade reporting. Their writers and interview subjects are more diverse, and the fact-based stories are, in fact, not outnumbered by the editorial pieces. Nevertheless, there remains a pattern of intentionality in placement and positioning of stories regarding the abortion decision. The article mentioned above is situated in the very small corner of a page dominated by a massive cigarette advertisement. Furthermore, the August 18, 1973, issue of The Tennessean printed an article entitled “Abortion Almost Accepted” on a page consisting of so-called women’s interests, alongside articles like “Thelma’s a Joiner” and “Luncheon, Fashion for ‘Outgoing’ Party,” and advertisements for jewelry and perfume (The Tennessean 3E). Nevertheless, The Tennessean did publish a variety of articles in succession to the Supreme Court ruling, and they actually consulted female reporters, unlike any Texas newspaper. Perhaps the state’s distance from the case’s figurehead allowed it to be more unbiased and diverse in its approach to printed coverage.
Even though the news articles in local papers were nationally reputable and mostly unbiased, there was still a measureable amount of bias in local coverage of Roe v. Wade. Specifically, the placement of articles throughout various newspapers implies a sense of bias, at least regarding the relative importance and subsequent coverage of the Supreme Court case. It can be argued that there is bias even in such choice words as “pro-abortion” and “anti-abortion.” In this sense, editorial content may have bled into what was intended to be, factual news coverage of Roe v. Wade, and this results in coverage that disregarded the reality and impact of both abortion and the court’s ruling on it (Goldkamp 41). Roe v. Wade news coverage offers many examples of the contradiction of legality and morality, as does the case itself. Thus, it is not far-fetched to assume that “reporting on abortion and other sanctity-of-life issues has become the Achilles’ heel of the media Elite” (Goldkamp 41). From another perspective, 1973 reporting on the Roe v. Wade ruling was effective in promoting both local and national coverage of events with such political, cultural, and economic manifestations. Local newspapers capture the ruling in print and thus catalyze independent and public thought and conversation.
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Unlike widely-read newspapers, magazines are published monthly, weekly, or bi-weekly, so it is less common to find a plethora of articles on breaking-news decisions, such as the legalization of abortion. In 1973, Roe v. Wade was not thoroughly documented through the media of magazines, at least not as thoroughly as it was in newspapers. While being debated in court, Roe v. Wade moved along gradually, and even when concluded, the decision could not be reflected the next day in magazines which take months to produce. Instead, it would be included in the a later issue of a magazine, which may be published weeks or even months after the date of the ruling. This obviously impacted how the ruling was received by magazine subscribers.
In The Nation, coverage the Roe v. Wade decision, announced on January 22, was included in the next month’s issue, published on February 5, 1973. Despite being published significantly later, perhaps after the novelty of the abortion law had diminished, there were benefits to magazine’s coverage of Roe v. Wade. The slow process of magazine reporting provides writers with more time to reflect and gather sources. For magazines, this leaves room for more factual, more distant coverage. The more thorough documentation process may have also aided in providing magazines with information that newspapers were unable to include simply because of the fast-paced style news coverage in daily publications. For example, The Nation’s February 5, 1973 editorial, entitled “Roe v. Wade,” includes reactions of people directly affected by the court’s ruling. It asserts the ruling’s impact on poor people in low-income communities and particularly the impact on poor African-American citizens who could not afford abortions (Editors). This is significant due to the severe lack of non-white, non-male, non-wealthy voices in most other forms of media. In fact, The Nation’s approach to covering Roe v. Wade stands out alongside a mass of media discussing negative feelings of people rather than the actual negative impacts on people.
The Nation’s Roe v. Wade coverage provokes an informed reading from its subscribers because of its neutral tone and its validity based upon its many contributors. Although this magazine is socially progressive in its coverage, there is still a lack of individual women’s voices since they are filtered through the voices of The Nation’s editors. Yet it is important to note that the magazine is reflective of its time, a time when women were fighting for basic rights. Time, however, does go further than The Nation to tell the stories of individual women. In Time’s Feburary 5, 1973 issue, an article entitled “A Stunning Approval for Abortion” includes anectodes about the individual women who made abortion a Supreme Court issue, “Jane Roe” and “Mary Doe.” The piece goes even further to thank “the Texas waitress and the poverty-stricken Georgia housewife” for their roles in giving all women “the same right to an abortion during the first six months of pregnancy as she has to any other minor surgery” (“A Stunning Approval for Abortion”). This may be the most evident and thorough inclusion of these two individuals within the mass of media coverage on the abortion law they played a vital role in creating. The thanking of “Roe” and “Doe,” along with the story’s praise of the court ruling as “bold and uncompromising,” tarnishes the objective, unbiased ideal of media coverage of such news-worthy events (“A Stunning Approval for Abortion”). However, magazines generally differ from other types of media because of their more personal, and thus more biased, discussions of events.
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Since magazines do not tend to heavily cover news events like Roe v. Wade, the coverage it receives in both Time and The Nation speaks to the case’s impact, both nationwide and in individual communities. However, magazines, in the seventies and today, mainly include personal stories, reflections, and opinions rather than breaking news coverage. Simply because of the production timeline, themes that are more magazine-friendly include arts, entertainment, fashion, lifestyle, hobbies, and academics. Thus, the inclusion of Roe v. Wade stories in nationally distributed magazines proves the national impact and significance of the Supreme Court case. Furthermore, the inclusion of Roe v. Wade coverage in all forms of locally, nationally, and perhaps internationally accessible media speaks to its importance in history.
It is necessary to recognize similarities and differences in the types of media used to report on Roe v. Wade in order to understand the role it played in history. Coverage extends to nearly all media outlets, and it includes a wide, representative range of opinions and reactions to the ruling. However, the massive coverage of the Roe v. Wade ruling coincidentally disputes the intent of the Supreme Court’s decision to “shift the controversial question of abortion from the public to the private domain” (Hansen 20). On this note, Roe v. Wade coverage contains elements that blatantly dispute women’s rights to privacy and decision-making. Roe v. Wade coverage is not all-encompassing; male domination of journalism marginalizes the female population within a period of history-making for women. The lacking prominence of and focus on women is reflective of 1973, though, and thus the radio, television, newspaper, and magazine coverage is accurate. The combined media sources effectively present and subsequently influence the outcome and impact of Roe v. Wade, a potentially polarizing and definitely divisive piece of news.
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S O U R C E S . . .
“1973 CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.” YouTube, uploaded by AmericanThrowback, 19 Sept. 2016,
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Zv1bmY4Wd34.
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“A Stunning Approval for Abortion.” Time, 5 Feb. 1973. http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,906827,00.html
“Abortion.” The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (1973-), vol. 64, no. 4, 1973, pp. 393–399, http://jstor.org/stable/1142438.
Associated Press. “Court passes on abortion.” Brownwood Bulletin [Brownwood, TX], 3 June1974, p. 1.
Barker, Karlyn. "Abortion Backers Hail Ruling; Foes Pledge Continued Fight." The Washington Post, 23 Jan. 1973, 49th ed., p. A2.
“Letter from America by Alistair Cooke, Roe v Wade.” BBC News. BBC, BBC Radio 4, 27 Jan. 1973, http://bbc.co.uk.
Blackmun, Harry A. "Excerpts from Abortion Case." The New York Times, 23 Jan. 1973, p. 20.
Brozan, Nadine. “Abortion Almost Accepted.” The Tennessean, 18 Aug. 1074, p. 3-E.
“Doctor talks about Roe v. Wade decision and hospital staff concerned about performing abortions.” MPR. MPR, 6 Feb. 1973, http://archive.mprnews.org/stories/19730206/ doctor-talks-about-roe-v-wade-decision-and-hospital-staff-concerned-about.
Editors, et al. “Roe v. Wade.” The Nation, 5 Feb. 1973. https://thenation.com/article/roe-v-wade.
“Flashback: 1973 Report on Roe v. Wade.” NBC News. NBC, 22 Jan. 1973.
http://msnbc.com/msnbc/watch/flashback-1973-report-on-roe-v-wade-606289987756.
Goldkamp, Richard. “America Deserves Better.” Human Life Review, vol. 35, no. 4, pp. 41-46. EBSCOhost, http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct =true&db=aph&AN=48634267&site=eds-live&scope=site.
Gratz, Roberta Brandes. “Never Again: Death, Politics, and Abortion.” Ms. Magazine, 1973.
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Hansen, Susan B. "The Supreme Court, the States, and Social Change: The Case of Abortion." Peace & Change, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 20-36. EBSCOhost, http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ahl&AN=4839811&site=eds-live&scope=site.
Jolly, Brad. “First U.S. Abortion Law – Medical Not Moral Issue.” Kingsport Times [Kingsport, TN], 23 Feb. 1973, p. 10.
MacKenzie, John P. "Supreme Court Allows Early-Stage Abortions." The Washington Post, 23 Jan. 1973, 49th ed., pp. 1 et al.
“Roe v. Wade.” NBC Nightly News. NBC, 22 Jan. 1973, http://pastdaily.com.
“Roe v. Wade 1971 Oral Argument.” After Words. C-SPAN2, 22 Dec. 1971,
http://c-span.org/video/?59719-1/roe-v-wade-1971-oral-argument
Schweid, Barry. “Supreme Court Approves Abortion.” The Abilene Reporter-News [Abilene, TX], 23 Jan. 1973, p. 3-A.
UPI. “Hill Says Legislature Can’t Outlaw Abortions.” The Brownsville Herald [Brownsville, TX], 15 Aug. 1974, p. 3-A.
Van Gelder, Lawrence. "Cardinals Shocked - Reaction Mixed." The New York Times, 23 Jan. 1973, pp. 1 et al.