Pushing Boundaries

For many of us, what we know about so-­called abortion travel dates from the story of Sherri Finkbine (now Chessen), which is where Abortion across Borders begins. Finkbine was an Arizona woman who hosted a local version of the children’s television show Romper Room. In 1961, early in her fifth pregnancy, she used sedatives that her husband, Robert, had purchased in Europe, unaware that they contained thalidomide, which had been linked to several fetal anomalies. Once the Finkbines realized that Sherri had ingested the drug, and on the advice of their doctor, they sought an abortion. Ultimately denied one in the United States, the couple travelled to Sweden, in 1962, to obtain a legal one.

Finkbine’s story is inextricably entwined with that of Suzanne Vandeput, although the latter woman, a Belgian, is less remembered in North America. In 1962, Vandeput, with the support of her doctor, husband, and family, euthanized her newborn baby with an overdose of...