Miss Sherri & The Pharmacologist

Abortion is argued in the United States in the abstract, distilled to black and white and divorced from the context of women’s lives. There is often an underlying assumption that women who get abortions don’t want children and that all pregnancies are medically viable. The reality is abortion is deeply intertwined with a woman’s individual circumstances, and many who need abortions are mothers with wanted pregnancies that are, sadly, not viable.

The context of Sherri Chessen’s abortion is the worldwide thalidomide tragedy. Emboldened by a post-war, better-living-through-chemicals mentality, multinational drug companies were sidestepping science, ignoring reports of lost pregnancies and maimed children – almost half of which did not survive birth, and staying silent about the true impact of a drug that they were marketing as being completely “safe.” These powers operated for years with no accountability. But one woman found out she had taken thalidomide during the key weeks of her fifth pregnancy. The weeks when limbs, ears, the brain, and the heart develop. She made a difficult choice. She spoke up and said she would terminate her “poisoned pregnancy.” And the world judged her harshly.

Sherri Chessen is my mother. My sister and I were born after her thalidomide abortion in 1962. I would not be here if my mother hadn’t stood up for her right to decide what was best for her family.

The shell game of pushing pharmaceuticals that are more marketing than medicine is still playing out across the globe. And Sherri’s anguish is the story of every mother carrying a troubled pregnancy who can’t find medical help. Sixty years later, a new generation is being turned away from their doctor’s offices. This film is for them.

Kristin Atwell Ford
Scottsdale, Arizona
November 2023