Episode 59: Geraldine Santoro
Censored artwork of the photo taken of Geraldine, which later became a famous symbol of the abortion rights movement.
Geraldine Santoro, lovingly nicknamed Gerri and maiden name Twerdy, was born on August 16th, 1935. She was one of 14 siblings in a Ukrainian - American family living on a farm in rural Coventry, Connecticut. Anyone that knew Geraldine described her as “free-spirited and fun-loving” and she was adored by her family.
Gerri met her husband at just 18 and they married quickly, having two daughters and moving to California over the course of several years. Gerri’s husband Sam was very abusive, and she ended up fleeing with her daughters back to her childhood home in Connecticut in 1963. There she began working at the Mansfield training school where she met a man named Clyde Dixon, who she began to have an affair with. Geraldine was unable to get a divorce as it was illegal at this time.
Geraldine found herself pregnant, and she had gotten word that Sam was coming to Connecticut to visit his daughters. Panicked and fearing for her life, Gerri and Clyde checked into a motel room using aliases on June 8th, 1964 so that Clyde could give Gerri an illegal abortion using borrowed tools and guidance from a textbook.
Gerri was 28-years-old and 28-weeks along. She began to hemorrhage, and Clyde panicked and ran out of the motel, leaving Gerri to collapse onto the floor and bleed out. A maid found her body the next morning and when police arrived, they snapped a photo of the crime scene that later became a symbol for the abortion rights movement.
Clyde ended up being arrested and charged with manslaughter and conspiring to commit an illegal abortion. He served one year and one day in prison.
Gerri’s own daughters and sister became passionate advocates for safe, legal abortions so that what happened to their loved one would never happen to someone again. They continue to speak out against anti-abortion legislation and Gerri’s granddaughters have become advocates as well.
Image sources:
abc.net.au - “Before Roe v Wade fell, Gerri Santoro’s death galvanised America’s abortion movement. This is her story”