Diversity in the Workplace
June 22, 2016
Mississippi
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North Portland
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Beaverton
Photo by J enny g rahaM , o regon s hakesPeare f estival
Attorney Sarah Weddington (Sarah Jane Agnew, center) and her assistant Linda Coffee (Susan Lynskey, right) need a client to help them challenge a Texas law prohibiting
abortion—and ind one in the unpredictable Norma McCorvey (Sara Bruner, left). Now playing through the month of October at the Oregon Shakespeare Theater in Ash-
land, ‘Roe’ grapples with an array of complex points of view on the landmark 1973 decision legalizing abortion.
A Riveting Take on Abortion Divide
Ashland play ‘Roe’ accords dignity to complex points of view
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In 1971, a young woman named Sarah
Weddington argued Roe v. Wade before
the U.S. Supreme Court. (Then age 26,
she is still the youngest person to do such
a thing.) By the time she argued the case,
Norma McCorvey (known for case purpos-
es as Jane Roe) had missed the window of
time to obtain the abortion she had sought
-- predictable from the outset, though per-
haps not to McCorvey -- and the two wom-
en could hardly have approached the case
from social locations that were more dif-
by
ferent. From the very beginning, the case
meant different things to the two women,
an example of the many divides of culture
and privilege that have fueled and followed
the landmark decision.
More than 40 years later, the 1973 deci-
sion that the two women and their collab-
orators obtained persists in dividing Amer-
icans more than almost any other issue.
Yet we arguably have evolved not at all in
our understanding of the social forces that
drive the rifts between those who support
and those who oppose abortion rights.
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, as
part of its American Revolutions cycle of
plays exploring signiicant moments in
American history, saw the opportunity to
open up understanding by focusing on the
remarkable stories of individuals engaged
on all sides of this struggle -- beginning
with McCorvey and Weddington, but not
ending there. OSF commissioned play-
wright Lisa Loomer for the task, and she
has found a way to grapple with a daz-
zling array of complex points of view on
all sides of these issues and to accord them
all dignity. The resulting production, beau-
tifully directed by Bill Rauch and featuring
a wise and stunning cast, plays in Ashland
through the end of October.
The production is well-oriented to its
times and places, beginning with Wed-
dington’s circle of second-wave feminist
friends exploring “Our Bodies, Ourselves”
and beginning to think strategically about
how to advance issues of concern to wom-
en, concerns that men would never pursue.
The play devotes some time to the social
context in which Roe v. Wade arose, and
the women leaders who drove it, many of
whom, like Weddington, were just inding
their voices in legal and political arenas
that were hostile to women. The few wom-
en who had a shot at framing such efforts
tended to be white and relatively privi-
leged -- but they experienced such virulent
marginalization that they did not consider
themselves privileged, and often did not
have much awareness of how burdens on
reproductive rights might be experienced
by women of color or other women who
experienced more economic and educa-
tional disadvantages.
Of course, the case was decided by an
all-white-male Supreme Court unaccus-
tomed to addressing the dilemmas faced
by women across the spectrum of relative
privilege. Though not, strictly speaking, a
courtroom drama, the play cannily stages a
bit of Weddington’s Supreme Court experi-
ence with recordings of the actual justices’
questions, giving a lavor of how the deci-
sion came to be framed in a way that was
subtly focused on the concerns of doctors
C ontinued on P age 16