Sociological Imagination - Blog Posts

Norma McCorvey and the story of 'Roe vs. Wade'

It’s been a few weeks since Roe vs. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court. It’s been the ideal goal for conservative lawmakers and groups. The case that got it overturned, Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, focused on Mississippi’s appeal of a lower court ruling that struck the state’s law banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy as unconstitutional. In Mississippi’s appeal to the Supreme Court, the state’s district attorney asked the court not only to uphold its abortion ban but to overturn Roe vs. Wade. This marks the first time that the U.S has taken away a constitutional right entirely. The overturning got me wondering: Who was the woman who accomplished Roe vs. Wade in the first place?

Norma McCorvey, the woman ‘Jane Roe’ at the crucial center of abortion rights, had flaws, as everyone does. In 1969 she became pregnant a third time and simply wanted an abortion. According to the NY Times, ‘‘‘McCorvey, a young single woman in Dallas, gave no thought to the fight for reproductive rights. She was barely getting by as a waitress, had twice given birth to children placed for adoption, and simply wanted an abortion. She later lied about getting pregnant, saying she had been raped. When, more than a decade later, she came clean and wished to join the movement she had come to represent in earnest, its leaders denied her a meaningful part in their protests and rallies. ‘I think they’re embarrassed,” McCorvey told Texas Monthly in 1993, ‘They would like me to be college-educated, with poise and little white gloves.’’

Because of the fall of Roe, over 13 states in the United States have trigger laws that were put in place to go into effect, and it marks the first time in the country’s history that the Court has taken away a constitutional right, not to mention many abortion clinics across the country have closed down. But this isn’t the end: large companies like Disney, Meta, Apple Zillow, Buzzfeed, Amazon, Levi’s, etc., have offered compensation for their employees who seek abortion procedures. Dozens of elected prosecutors from over 29 states, territories, and Washington D.C, have released a statement, ‘‘We decline to use our office’s resources to criminalize reproductive health decisions and commit to exercise our well-settled discretion and refrain from prosecuting those who seek, provide, or support abortions….Criminalizing and prosecuting individuals who seek or provide abortion care makes a mockery of justice; prosecutions should not be a part of that.’’

This video occurred in March, and I think it’s important to hear from an actual doctor. When studying anthropology in school, I was taught to be unbiased and objective, which I tried to do in my past articles. But I cannot keep my objectivity, knowing many women across the states cannot get a safe abortion, especially as this doctor explains in the video, will continue to happen whether or not they are considered legal. Norma McCorvey may not have meant to start the fight for abortion rights when she decided to find lawyers, it is important to know that she started the fight, and it will continue to pave historically on!

Paranormal experiences

This article is wholly based on sociological principles, so it’s a little different from previous articles. The paranormal is an experience that falls out of conventional standards, or ‘science’. Paranormalism is thinking about or the examination of claims about things that fall out of conventional standards. C. Right Mills, the author of the Sociological Imagination, says the sociological imagination is the concept of being able to ‘think ourselves away from the familiar routines of our daily lives in order to look at them anew. But how does this fit into paranormalism?

Well, according to studies made, 18% of Americans say they’ve seen ghosts, or witnessed paranormal experiences. Nearly one-in-five U.S adults say they’ve seen or been in the presence of a ghost. 29% say they’ve felt in touch with someone who has died. Claude Fisher, a professor of sociology, explored America’s persisting beliefs in some supernatural phenomena in a 2013 study. A closer look reveals that belief can differ by gender and that women are more likely than men to believe in haunted houses, communicating with the dead, and astrology (because men are statically seen as more logical.) ‘‘In spite of strong public expressions of skepticism from the scientific community, polls show that nine out of ten Americans adults profess belief in paranormal phenomena. Some scientists view this is as a social problem, directing much blame (but little research) at a variety of sources including a lack of critical thinking skills, fads, need for transcendent experiences, failure of the educational system, and cultural cycles. Social impact theory provides an alternative focus: it views paranormal beliefs as a natural consequence of social influence processes in interpersonal settings.’’