Photo by Ashleigh Lucas
The Alligator archives from 1966, 1971 and 1985 showcase how the newspaper covered historical abortion issues through time.
The Independent Florida Alligator
The topic of abortion is relevant now more than ever. And it’s our job to keep the conversation going.
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade in June, a national discussion erupted, focused on what place abortion access has within the country. Considering The Alligator’s storied history with abortion, tracking the overturn’s ripple-effect impact on our community was important.
It’s one of the largest projects The Alligator has taken on in recent years. We’ve spent the past semester working to cover all facets of the issue and highlight a range of people’s perspectives.
Our staff spoke with Gainesville residents who have received abortions, OB-GYNs on the impact of Roe’s reversal on their job and members of Gen Z who define themselves as part of the new “pro-life generation.” We brought attention to the experience some have had with local crisis pregnancy centers and the future of emergency contraceptive vending machines on UF’s campus.
The edition also platforms the voices of local community members through columns in our opinions section. It also illustrates the voices featured in some of our articles through the powerful portraits taken by our hard-working photographers.
These efforts culminated into the special edition you have before you. Inside, you’ll find information on:
We recognize not everyone has easy access to abortion-related information, and we aim to make it more readily available to those who may need it through this project. We also acknowledge covering abortion is vital given its current limbo in the country.
We hope the Gainesville community sees a little bit of themselves in the coverage we’ve put forth — no matter where you fall on the issue.
It would’ve been the 50th anniversary of Roe in under two months. As shown in our coverage — the impact of the reversal is real and ongoing.
Here’s our assessment — looking at Roe in review.
The Editorial Board is made up of the Editor-in-Chief, Engagement Managing Editor, Digital Managing Editor and Opinions Editor
Photo by Ashleigh Lucas
The Alligator archives from 1966, 1971 and 1985 showcase how the newspaper covered historical abortion issues through time.
Less than two months away from what would have been the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, The Alligator is once again centering its coverage around the issue of abortion.
Reporting on Roe’s overturn and the effects on the community is historic, but The Alligator’s own history has always been intrinsically tied to abortion coverage — particularly in its path to independence. For The Alligator’s special edition on Roe, we took a deep dive into the newspaper archives to highlight our story.
More than 51 years ago, before Roe was established as legal precedent, The Alligator was forced to become independent from the university after then-Editor-in-Chief Ron Sachs and his staff distributed 22,000 lists of abortion referral agencies in the Oct. 6, 1971 edition of the paper, defying the orders of former UF President Stephen C. O’Connell and the law.
“Everyone enthusiastically wanted to participate,” Sachs told The Alligator. “We felt we were doing our part to uphold the First Amendment and to hopefully attack an unconstitutional law.”
Abortion, and the distribution of abortion information, was made illegal in Florida in 1868 — something that wouldn’t become legal until more than a century later.
At the time the abortion referral list was created by The Alligator staff, Sachs didn’t even know it would be illegal to distribute, he wrote in a 2013 edition of The Alligator reflecting on this history.
To him and the staff, it seemed archaic such a rule was in place, he said. The lists were accompanied by the story “Archaic abortion law gets another test,” authored by Sachs, referring to the limitation on information dissemination.
“In The Alligator newsroom that evening, our entire staff divided up copies of the mimeo sheets in a felonious conspiracy to stand up for the First Amendment,” he wrote.
The paper’s printer refused to print the lists, so Sachs enlisted the help of then-UF Student Body President Don Middlebrooks, who agreed to mimeograph 22,000 copies of the list on Student Government equipment. Then, Sachs and his staff of around 30 people visited newspaper boxes early in the morning, stuffing each edition with the resource.
He was arrested at the order of the state attorney’s office the day that paper went out.
Sachs’ stint in jail was short-lived — he had Jean Chance, a UF journalism professor at the time, and then-husband Chuck Chance, a lawyer, defending him — but the act of defiance got him and the paper in trouble with O’Connell and the university.
O’Connell, who had advised Sachs not to print the list, sought an advisory opinion from Florida’s then-Attorney General Bob Shevin on whether he had grounds to exercise prior restraint on The Alligator’s coverage — that is, the power to suppress what the paper could print. Shevin’s office said no.
Then, in December 1971, Sachs was tried in court by Alachua Judge Benmont Tench. In a surprise move, Tench struck down the 1868 abortion law, calling it unconstitutional.
Consequently, the state was forced to rewrite the law.
“Facts and truth in journalism and newspapers can make a difference — they can cause change to happen,” Sachs said. “By shining a light onto dark issues, by bringing to the public view important things about important issues, change can happen.”
Not long after, O’Connell cut funding from The Alligator, forcing it — or allowing it — to become independent.
Now, over 50 years later, The Alligator remains independent.
The contentious 1971 decision was part of an ongoing effort by The Alligator to cover stories about abortion. During Sachs’ tenure, the paper interviewed women who had legal and illegal abortions and wrote about state abortion laws.
In fact, the Oct. 4, 1971 edition of the paper, originally meant to include the infamous resource list, included stories about abortion on four pages and an editorial about abortion coverage — not too dissimilar to The Alligator’s Nov. 28, 2022, special edition on abortion.
“We are in an era where the pendulum on a lot of issues, including abortion, are swinging with a lot of energy back to the right,” Sachs said. “It’s just the nature of politics.”
Sachs’ actions undoubtably marked a turning point in the frequency and nature of The Alligator’s abortion coverage. Still, prior to the paper’s independence, The Alligator was writing about abortion.
One of the first times the word “abortion” was used in The Alligator — referring to the deliberate termination of a pregnancy — was in a 1963 story called “Premarital Sex Increasing.” The story warned against sex outside of marriage and commented on the dangers of illegal abortion. A month later, the paper ran a letter to the editor condemning the story.
“Through the use of contraceptives, abortions, and other devices, the likelihood of having an unwanted child is negligible,” the letter read. “Therefore, fear of an illegitimate child is unwarranted.”
In 1966, the paper reported UF was above average for number of pregnancies at a co-ed school, many of which lead to abortions. The story described hundreds of anxious and worried pregnant students, many of which traveled to South Florida to receive abortions.
Notably, the paper didn’t discuss abortion in more than passing terms until the late ‘60s. Former Alligator Columnist David Morris wrote about this in a 1966 column, “Recognize Student Power.”
“Students in the 1960’s are a far different breed than their counterparts of the early 1950’s,” he wrote. “The viewpoint of the young should be considered since the adults have done a pretty poor job in certain major areas (e.g. Civil Rights) and have totally ignored others (e.g. abortion laws).”
And, of course, the paper has covered abortion since becoming independent and since Roe was passed in 1973.
In a 1985 paper, abortion protests made the front page of the paper with then-Alligator staff writer Mickie Anderson’s story “Abortion issue takes to the street.” The story details pro-abortion demonstrators holding signs that read “keep your laws off my body” and “no more wire hangers.”
On June 25, 2022, the day after Roe was officially overturned and nearly 40 years after Anderson’s protest story, The Alligator reported 1,000 pro-abortion protestors marched through the streets of Gainesville.
“Our bodies are ungovernable,” read one sign, photographed in the paper.
On Feb. 6, 2023, Republican Sen. Ben Sasse, who has made his anti-abortion access stance known, will become the new UF president.
Sasse is described on his official website as an “outspoken pro-life advocate.” His first visit to UF was met with a protest of more than 300 students, many of which vehemently disagree with his stance on abortion.
The Alligator has covered Sasse’s anti-abortion stance and student disapproval since he was announced as a presidential finalist. And, as evident in an editorial callout by the paper asking Sasse to answer reporters’ questions, the paper will continue to cover this issue.
“The smart, tough and earnest young journalists who have labored in The Alligator newsroom throughout its history never have considered it a mere classroom or sandbox,” Sachs wrote in his 2013 column. “They have considered it a mission to inquire and to inform and, inevitably, to rankle the powerful by the newspaper’s very nature.”
In July, less than two weeks after the Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe, The Alligator staff took once again to the pages of the paper to remind readers where it stands in an editorial.
“We’ve been here before,” it read.
And now, we’re here again.
Contact Nora at noneill@alligator.org. Follow them on Twitter @NorONeill.