When housewives began demanding abortions, it wasn't just that mainstream society saw them as nice, respectable ladies who of course should make decisions about their own bodies for themselves. It's that each one was seeking an abortion for a very specific reason: to prevent what mainstream society saw as a tragedy—a disabled child. Thalidomide sparked the anxiety among women, but rubella made it persist. https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/podcast/roe-v-wade-v-rubella