Sherri Chessen (1932– )

Sherri Chessen, also known as Sherri Finkbine, a television host who lived in Scottsdale, Arizona, during the 1960s, sought an abortion after learning that the sedative thalidomide caused fetal deformities. At the time, Arizona law only allowed abortions if the mother’s life was at risk. Chessen anonymously contacted The Arizona Republic, a local newspaper, and a reporter, Julian DeVries, told Chessen’s story in an article titled, “Pill May Cost Woman Her Baby.” Chessen’s identity later became public when the Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix, Arizona, where Chessen was to have the abortion, filed a suit to get the state’s approval to authorize the abortion. After her name became public, the hospital refused to perform the abortion, leading Chessen to travel to Sweden for the procedure. Chessen’s case led to widespread discussion about abortion access in the United States, brought the issue of reproductive rights into the national spotlight, and eventually influenced legal reforms, including the US Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade (1973).

1. Background on Thalidomide
2. Early Life and Education
3. Exposure to Thalidomide
4. Petitioning the Court
5. Chessen’s Abortion in Sweden
6. Impact

Background on Thalidomide

The sedative thalidomide was the drug Chessen used early in her pregnancy that led her to seek an abortion. In the 1950s and early 1960s, physicians used thalidomide to treat nausea in pregnant women. Thalidomide reduces inflammation and blocks the growth of new blood vessels. In 1961, most countries banned thalidomide after over 10,000 children across Europe, Australia, and Japan were born with limb malformations such that the babies’ arms and legs were underdeveloped or missing. Thalidomide did not receive approval in the US due to safety concerns. As of 2025, women do not have access to thalidomide for pregnancy concerns. However, physicians use thalidomide to treat different conditions like leprosy and multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer.

Early Life and Education

Chessen was born on 21 July 1932 to Mary Chessen, a college graduate who was a full-time caregiver, and Norman Chessen, a boxing match promoter. She was the eldest of five children, with three brothers and one sister. Chessen claims in her autobiography that one of her first instances of activism was when she was five years old. Despite being Jewish, she performed in the Christmas pageant at Jackson Elementary in Duluth, Minnesota. She felt that Jewish kids were often left out of those holiday celebrations. During the Christmas pageant, teachers told fourteen-year-olds to hold up each letter of Merry Christmas. Every child was holding their individual letters the right way except the boy who was holding up the “A.” Chessen, who was holding the “M” marched in front of all the kids to turn the letter around. She curtsied, and the audience applauded.

According to Chessen, she was unaware of inequality between men and women until she was in eighth grade. Her school required the girls to take a home economics class and make full-body aprons, while the boys were required to take shop classes or work on cars. Chessen protested, but it was unsuccessful. That early experience of recognizing inequalities between men and women marked the beginning of her advocacy for women’s rights. Chessen went to Duluth Central High School in Duluth and came close to graduating with a pin from the National Honor Society because of her activity in many organizations. Chessen did not receive the pin because she stayed out past her curfew to support the Duluth Central High School basketball team in the state championship.

Chessen attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Madison, Wisconsin, graduating with a degree in radio and television in 1954. After being unable to pledge Kappa Alpha Theta for being Jewish, Chessen set out to be a cheerleader. At the time, typically only men from the tumbling team were cheerleaders. After LyAnne Fleming Thorman, one of the founding members of the University of Wisconsin’s cheerleading squad, pleaded their case to the president of the University, Chessen became one of the first four women cheerleaders at the University of Wisconsin. During college, she was a Girl Scout, camper, cheerleader, playground director, and camp counselor. Chessen met her first husband, Robert Finkbine, while at the University of Wisconsin where he majored in history. They got married in 1953 while still in college and spent the summer after they graduated hosting a co-educational swim camp. After college, Chessen and her husband moved to Indiana, where her husband was from, and raised three children. For a time, Chessen also narrated a program on an Indiana Radio Station called Radio Station WSDM.

Chessen and her family moved from Indiana to Arizona in 1958. She began writing for the news program KTVK. Shortly after, she auditioned for the role of a teacher in the television show called Romper Room. She appeared on television five days a week for an hour a day as a teacher for the show and was a member of the board of governors for the local Television Academy. During her career, she won the local Emmy for Best Children’s Show.

Exposure to Thalidomide

In 1961, Chessen’s husband and two other teachers at Arcadia High School in Phoenix chaperoned sixty-three high school students on a tour through Europe. Chessen’s husband needed something to help him rest, so a physician in London, England, gave him over-the-counter sedatives containing thalidomide. Chessen’s husband brought the remainder of the sedatives home after not finishing them during his trip, unaware of the potential risks for pregnant women.

Physicians initially prescribed the sedative pills for morning sickness. Chessen reported that she took thirty-six of the sedative pills that her husband brought home in the early stages of her pregnancy, unaware they contained thalidomide. At the time, Chessen, thirty years old, was a mother of four and pregnant with her fifth child.

Chessen read an article titled “Woman Doctor Curbs Newborn Tragedies,” which The Arizona Republic published on 16 July 1962, and learned the risks of taking thalidomide while pregnant. The article reported on Frances Oldham Kelsey, the physician who prevented the approval of thalidomide in the United States. After reading the article, Chessen consulted her physician about the sedatives she had taken and learned that thalidomide had been associated with severe birth defects, including missing limbs and deformities in newborns. The physician recommended she terminate her two-month pregnancy and explained that physicians performed approximately ten to twenty-five abortions annually in Phoenix. Chessen agreed. The hospital arranged the procedure at Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix, which as of 2025 is the Banner-University Medical Center.

For Chessen to receive an abortion, a committee of three Arizona physicians needed to consider whether her termination fell within the guidelines of Arizona’s abortion law. The abortion law in Arizona at the time stated that abortion was illegal, except in cases where the mother’s life was at risk. On 23 July 1962, a panel of physicians recommended the abortion and her physician set the date of the abortion for 26 July 1962.

Although the procedure could have been discreet, Chessen stated that she wanted to warn other women who may have taken thalidomide unknowingly. She shared her story with a medical reporter, who promised her anonymity. On 23 July 1962, Julian DeVries published the article “Pill May Cost Woman Her Baby” in The Arizona Republic. The article details Chessen’s decision to terminate her pregnancy due to the risk of giving birth to an infant with deformities. It explains how animal tests had shown that thalidomide caused birth defects, leading to its removal from the market. However, the drug was not pulled in time to prevent Chessen from taking the pills that her husband had brought back from Europe.

“Pill May Cost Woman Her Baby” sparked international interest and became a focal point of national media coverage. Due to the unexpected publicity and possible lawsuit surrounding what life means, the physicians postponed the procedure to ask the Arizona Supreme Court.

Petitioning the Court

According to Chessen’s testimony in the 2010 book Before Roe v. Wade: Voices that shaped the abortion debate before the Supreme Court’s ruling, the physicians, hospital, and legal team did not want to face criminal prosecution due to the unclear Arizona abortion law, which allowed for the termination only if the mother's life was at risk.

In that same testimony, Chessen writes that to clarify the law's meaning, particularly the phrase “necessary to save the life of the mother,” the hospital decided to petition the Arizona Supreme Court for a declaratory judgment before proceeding. The plaintiffs in the case were Chessen, her husband, and Good Samaritan Hospital, which attorney Walter Cheifetz represented. The suit claimed that Chessen’s life was at risk and that the abortion was necessary for the preservation of her life. The suit also outlined that the plaintiffs and the Good Samaritan Hospital requested protection from prosecution if they proceeded with the abortion. Judge Yale McFate dismissed the case, asserting that there was no legal dispute under the law that required the court’s intervention and that he had no authority to approve Chessen’s abortion.

McFate granted Cheifetz ten days to amend the suit and clearly define the legal controversy, but Cheifetz took no further legal steps. At that point, the decision rested with the hospital, and they needed to reassess whether to proceed with the abortion. Steven Morris, the administrative officer at the Good Samaritan Hospital, stated that physicians and lawyers had to review the medical and legal aspects of the case. However, the hospital canceled the procedure, and Chessen’s name was publicly revealed because the hospital had filed the suit to clear the way for her abortion.

On 26 July 1962, The Arizona Republic published the story “In Abortion Case Mother TV Star Here,” which exposed Chessen’s identity and address. The piece details her decision to petition the Arizona Supreme Court and provides background information about her. That article thrust Chessen into the public eye, leading to several people making death threats and an influx of letters that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation had to investigate. According to Chessen’s testimony in Before Roe v. Wade: Voices that shaped the abortion debate before the Supreme Court’s ruling, those letters were filled with vitriol, such as one that wished harm upon her other four children, and one in which a Chicago minister warned that God’s wrath befall her family.

Chessen’s Abortion in Sweden

Since the rest of the US had similar regulations on abortion, Chessen could not have her abortion done anywhere in the country. Chessen planned to go overseas to Japan for the abortion. Japanese authorities denied her a visa because they were concerned about potential anti-Japanese demonstrations in America.

The Royal Caroline Hospital, also known as the Karolinska Institute, in Stockholm County, Sweden, offered to review Chessen’s case. Chessen and her husband arrived in Stockholm, Sweden, on 5 August 1962. Physicians and social workers needed to examine Chessen prior to the abortion. A ten-man medical panel from the Royal Swedish Medical Board granted Chessen’s request for an abortion on the grounds of protecting her mental health after three weeks of reviewing her case.

On 18 August 1962, physicians successfully terminated Chessen's pregnancy at the Royal Caroline Hospital. The physician who performed her procedure stated that the fetus was severely malformed.

On 1 September 1962, Chessen returned to Arizona with her husband. The local television station found Chessen unfit to work with children and fired her. A few years later, the station allowed her to do a local television talk show called “Here’s Sherri,” an afternoon talk show for housewives. However, in 1964 she quit because she was pregnant again. She later went on to have two more children before divorcing Bob Finkbine in 1973.

After her divorce, Chessen moved to La Jolla, California, sold real estate, performed commercial voice-overs, and began a new career writing and publishing children’s books. Those children’s books speak on topics like gun violence and bullying. In 1991, Chessen married David Pent, and they remained married until his death in 2002. He was an obstetrician and gynecologist who practiced at the Good Samaritan Hospital, where Chessen was initially to have her abortion. On 20 June 1992, a movie called A Private Matter came out about Chessen’s abortion, which sparked discussion around her decision thirty years later. Chessen later married Bob Tauber and has six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Impact

Chessen’s 1962 abortion garnered national attention, shining a spotlight on reproductive rights in the early 1960s and influencing public discourse on abortion. Then President John Fitzgerald Kennedy issued a national plea to dispose of foreign pills and increased the personnel of the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA. Various literature shared Chessen’s experiences. She was featured in a Life magazine piece in 1962 that prompted a discussion about abortion, which the press did not typically discuss in print. In August 1962, a Gallup poll showed that fifty-two percent of respondents believed Chessen had acted appropriately, which reflected a shift in societal attitudes that contributed to future legal changes.

According to legal reporter Linda Greenhouse’s 2023 article “A Forgotten Chapter of Abortion History Repeats Itself” in The New York Times, Chessen’s decision to speak out against thalidomide and its effects on fetal development became a catalyst for abortion reform in the United States. Eleven years after Chessen’s abortion in 1973, in its Roe v. Wade decision, the US Supreme Court established that the right to liberty in the Constitution includes the right to decide whether to continue a pregnancy, which placed reproductive decision-making alongside other fundamental rights. The decision legalized abortion nationwide, making it a federal right rather than a state issue, and advanced gender equality by asserting the right to make personal decisions free from government interference. Prior to Roe, most states had criminal bans on abortion, including Arizona. After the Roe decision, Chessen met the attorney who argued the case, Sarah Weddington, who informed her that Chessen’s case made her argument so much easier.

As of 2025, Chessen is ninety-three years old and continues to advocate for reproductive rights.

Sources

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