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Overturn: Rowe vs. Wade
Overturn is a story about presidential elections, about the endless conflict between pro-life and pro-choice ideology, and, most of all, how national political issues can impact family relationships.
The Texas Legislature passes House Bill 27 making abortions illegal throughout the state. Amarillo physician Joseph Wright doesn't care. He rarely does them—Joe hardly bothers to read the details of the new law.
On the national scene, however, HB27 could not have come at a better time for pro-life, presidential candidate Reginald Q. McCormack. Running as a third-party Independent against a female Democrat and a war-hero Republican, political pollsters gave Reggie little or no chance. Single-issue candidates are not even expected to qualify for a place on the ballot.
Then tragedy strikes. Bretta Wright, Joe's 23-year-old daughter, a senior at nearby Canyon State University, is brutally raped. Police find her—unconscious, bleeding, badly beaten—and rush her to Northwest Texas Hospital, where she is treated by a team of doctors that include her father. As Bretta slowly recovers from the ordeal, she is found to be pregnant.
Joe does the D and C—an abortion. And had it not been for Texas’s highly charged political scene, the medical procedure might have passed as a private matter. But presidential candidate McCormack sees it as an opportunity to escalate his campaign. He energizes the media to make sure local authorities have Joe arrested. Law enforcement officials take Joe’s medical license and he is arraigned for a five-year prison sentence. National television news programs spotlight the pro-life candidate giving assurance that "Dr. Wright will not kill any more babies."
McCormack's campaign surges and his contributions double. Joe fights back. He hires a lawyer, files an appeal, and secures a temporary injunction to continue his medical practice.
Then, just when it seems that the controversy has reached its peak, a supreme court justice dies and the president nominates Texas judge Evelyn Jones, a long-time pro-life jurist. What had been the biggest news story of the presidential campaign, grows to historic proportions. The McCormack campaign swells and is now on the ballot in all fifty states. Reggie says, “If Roe v. Wade can be overturned, Texas v. Wright is the case that will do it.”
Senate judiciary committee hearings are nationally televised. McCormack is eager to testify on behalf of the Jones nomination. Reluctantly, because of her bias, Joe agrees to testify against. And for the first time, Joseph Wright and Reginald McCormack come face to face. It’s a political scenario made in heaven for a presidential candidate, and Reggie exploits it to the fullest. The dark horse becomes the front runner.
The Texas Legislature passes House Bill 27 making abortions illegal throughout the state. Amarillo physician Joseph Wright doesn't care. He rarely does them—Joe hardly bothers to read the details of the new law.
On the national scene, however, HB27 could not have come at a better time for pro-life, presidential candidate Reginald Q. McCormack. Running as a third-party Independent against a female Democrat and a war-hero Republican, political pollsters gave Reggie little or no chance. Single-issue candidates are not even expected to qualify for a place on the ballot.
Then tragedy strikes. Bretta Wright, Joe's 23-year-old daughter, a senior at nearby Canyon State University, is brutally raped. Police find her—unconscious, bleeding, badly beaten—and rush her to Northwest Texas Hospital, where she is treated by a team of doctors that include her father. As Bretta slowly recovers from the ordeal, she is found to be pregnant.
Joe does the D and C—an abortion. And had it not been for Texas’s highly charged political scene, the medical procedure might have passed as a private matter. But presidential candidate McCormack sees it as an opportunity to escalate his campaign. He energizes the media to make sure local authorities have Joe arrested. Law enforcement officials take Joe’s medical license and he is arraigned for a five-year prison sentence. National television news programs spotlight the pro-life candidate giving assurance that "Dr. Wright will not kill any more babies."
McCormack's campaign surges and his contributions double. Joe fights back. He hires a lawyer, files an appeal, and secures a temporary injunction to continue his medical practice.
Then, just when it seems that the controversy has reached its peak, a supreme court justice dies and the president nominates Texas judge Evelyn Jones, a long-time pro-life jurist. What had been the biggest news story of the presidential campaign, grows to historic proportions. The McCormack campaign swells and is now on the ballot in all fifty states. Reggie says, “If Roe v. Wade can be overturned, Texas v. Wright is the case that will do it.”
Senate judiciary committee hearings are nationally televised. McCormack is eager to testify on behalf of the Jones nomination. Reluctantly, because of her bias, Joe agrees to testify against. And for the first time, Joseph Wright and Reginald McCormack come face to face. It’s a political scenario made in heaven for a presidential candidate, and Reggie exploits it to the fullest. The dark horse becomes the front runner.
329 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 15, 2014
5 people want to read
About the author
Harry Haines
20 books2 followersHarry H. Haines started out as (we kid you not) a trombone player. Trombone led to band directing. Band directing led to a doctorate and college teaching. University work and today’s "publish or perish" environment led to fifteen books, all nonfiction, most about music teaching, six about cars.
Harry liked writing and, when he retired from teaching at WTAMU, he decided to try his hand at fiction. It looked easy. Thirteen years and four books later, he has the battle scars to show that it was anything but. He attended the Iowa Summer Writers Festival four times, the Maui Writers Conference/Retreat three times, and several dozen writers' workshops located all over the country. And he entered an uncountable number of fiction contests. He failed a lot but his manuscripts have won four, big, international contests. See "awards" page on the website.
The Cover-up at Ann Arbor is about cars and the people who design and make them. But like Haines’s first two stories, the sub-plot features a singer who faces ruthless competition.
Harry and his wife Shirley (a retired librarian) live in Canyon, Texas.
Harry liked writing and, when he retired from teaching at WTAMU, he decided to try his hand at fiction. It looked easy. Thirteen years and four books later, he has the battle scars to show that it was anything but. He attended the Iowa Summer Writers Festival four times, the Maui Writers Conference/Retreat three times, and several dozen writers' workshops located all over the country. And he entered an uncountable number of fiction contests. He failed a lot but his manuscripts have won four, big, international contests. See "awards" page on the website.
The Cover-up at Ann Arbor is about cars and the people who design and make them. But like Haines’s first two stories, the sub-plot features a singer who faces ruthless competition.
Harry and his wife Shirley (a retired librarian) live in Canyon, Texas.
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