It was November 1972 when then 23-year-old Sandra Weisner found herself having to make a decision.
"I was a single mom, I had a 6-year-old son and I was pregnant," she said. "I knew that I couldn’t bring another child into the world. I knew that the challenge it would be for me, we were barely keeping a roof over our head."
Weisner was in California in 1972, just months before Roe v. Wade was passed in January 1973.
"We got into this free clinic in downtown Los Angeles. It was this secretive thing," she explained. "They had this meeting and they told us how we could go to Mexico."
Weisner said the clinic connected her with a travel agent who arranged her trip. Days later she was on a plane to Mexico using a borrowed $600 to pay for the flight and the procedure.
"I noticed there were other young women on the plane who looked a lot like me. I imagine this was a normal trip for the airline," she said.
Weisner said she stayed in a hotel and was picked up by a bus early the next day.
"They kind of drove this crazy route to where we were going so we wouldn’t remember where it was, but it was really an abortion mill," she said.
Weisner said she didn't remember the procedure, but less than 24 hours after, she started feeling sick.
"I was hemorrhaging and sicker than I’ve ever been in my entire life," she said. "I got back to California and got to the emergency room. But the hospital had to do a telephone call to the police. I’m laying there on a gurney hemorrhaging still. They hadn’t treated me at all and the police questioned me."
Weisner said while she was at the hospital she also found out she had been fired from her job.
"I never found out exactly why," she said. "They had my friend from work tell me I had been fired."
Weisner said Friday's Supreme Court ruling was her motivation to share her story, fearing more women could soon be in her shoes.
"It’s been years since I’ve been able to tell this story because of the shame and the embarrassment," she said. "But now I am angry. Just angry. The thought of any other woman ever having to go through that again. It was a punch in the gut."
She called on women to march their protests from the State House to the polls.
"We are kind of right back where we were in the 70s," she said. "This should be a wake-up call for women. Get out and vote, ladies. What’s keeping you from going to the polls? Go out and vote."
Ohio law requires certain information about induced abortions to be reported to the Ohio Department of Health by the physician who performed the abortion.
In 2020, 20,605 women had abortions in Ohio. 1,167 of those people traveled from out of state
Abortions by age
- 25-29 years old: 6,285
- 20-24 years old: 5,915
- 18-19 years old: 1,233
- 15-17 years old: 469
- Under 15 years old: 52
Abortions by Demographic
- White: 8,667
- Black: 8,909
- Asian/Pacific Islander: 618
- Other/Not Reported: 2,411
Abortions by County (Counties where there are still clinics
- Cuyahoga – 31.5%
- Hamilton – 18.4%
- Franklin – 17%
- Summit – 14.2%
- Montgomery – 13.4%
In 2020, the Ohio Department of Health reports abortions were done all across the state. They were performed on someone in every Ohio county.