Sherri Chessen on her 1962 abortion, and the fate of Roe: "We can't go back to willow sticks and knitting needles"

In 1962 Sherri Chessen was a married mother of four, and star of "Romper Room," a children's TV show in Phoenix, where she was known as Miss Sherri, when she became pregnant. To treat morning sickness, she took a sedative her husband, Bob Finkbine, brought back from Britain.

That drug, she later discovered, contained thalidomide, a chemical linked to severe birth defects. "What I did was poison myself with a drug whose name I didn't even know," she said in a 1998 interview.

Not wanting to bring a child with a congenital disorder into their family, Sherri and Bob opted for an abortion, which at the time was only available in rare cases.