In 1985, Ali MacGraw, the Oscar-nominated star of Love Story, appeared on the cover of People magazine. The headline read: “Abortion – No easy answers.” A subheadline announced that nine women, including MacGraw, had decided to “tell starkly different stories about how [abortion] has affected their lives.” Twelve years had passed since the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v Wade, which legalized abortion across the US. Thirty-seven more years would elapse until its reversal in 2022.
“The decision to have – or not have – an abortion should be a private one, actress Ali MacGraw believes,” People’s introduction reads in part. “She agreed to talk about that long-ago episode … in the hope that it would contribute to the national debate by recalling the dangers women faced prior to the Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion.”
