It began one hot summer's night as a carnival closed its run in a small town near Augusta, Georgia. A group of rough-looking, young men had been hanging around most of the evening, drinking, cursing, and generally trying to cause problems for the workers. It was the kind of behavior that traveling show workers often encountered, and so the workers thought little more about it. Following the closing of the show for the night, several hours of work remained to be done so that the carnival could leave town early the next morning. Rather than wait around for their usual ride, three female roommates decided to walk the short distance to their motel. On the way, they were attacked, and one was raped. She couldn't remember much about the incident, except that she had been frightened and confused. She thought that the man who raped her could have been one of the men who had caused trouble at the carnival that night. She also couldn't recall what had happened to the two women she was with. She knew only that when she regained her senses, she was alone. She managed to stumble back to her motel room only to find that her friends had already left, taking all of their belongings, including hers, with them. She thought about reporting the rape or telling someone about what happened, but for some reason she decided against it. Instead, she crawled into bed and slept on and off until early the next morning. When she awoke, she looked out the window and realized that the carnival had left, leaving her alone and penniless. After deciding to return to Dallas where her family and several friends lived, she had a friend wire her the exact fair for a bus ride home.
             In 1969, Texas abortion law, dating back to 1857, permitted abortion only when the mother's life was endangered. This pregnant, single woman who was raped and penniless was angry at being forced by a legal system to have a child that she neither wanted or felt...