Anniversaries are typically happy occasions and causes for celebration. While a very vocal minority are celebrating today, there are so many more marking a solemn milestone. Women and girls have been without a guarantee of reproductive healthcare for 365 days. It was on June 24, 2022, the landmark case that codified access to legal abortion, known as Roe vs. Wade, fell at the hands of the conservatively stacked Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS).
For 49 years, women have had the constitutional right to make decisions regarding their personal health and plans for their families. Now, so many face uncertain futures thanks to the SCOTUS ruling and overzealous, overreaching state legislatures that passed "trigger" laws regarding access to abortion. The ruling remains a gut punch and slap in the face to every woman, regardless where her opinion lies on this complicated issue.
Technically, I should not have to address my religious stance since the Founding Fathers had the foresight to build the concept of separation of Church and State into the framework of the United States' government, but we all know religion, specifically Christianity, is the root of this issue, and the Church (as an institution and a whole) is becoming ever more entwined with our government even though it has no business meddling there. So, since we seem to be struggling to understand this concept, here it goes. I am a Christian and have been since I was a child. I was raised in the South in the heart of the Bible Belt; I also happen to be white. Having been brought up this way, I understand all too well why some are celebrating the SCOTUS ruling because I used to think the same way. I used to identify as "pro-life". Naively, I believed this meant I did not want babies to die and that is what God wanted me to believe because of a handful of Bible verses.
However, I have come to understand the majority of those who identify as "pro-life" are not so much pro-life as they are "pro-birth." You may be asking yourself, "What's the difference?" To truly be pro-life requires an individual to care about the child in every stage of his or her life: mental and physical healthcare for the mother, access to a safe home, food security, access to a quality education, removing barriers from adoption, fostering children, paid parental leave. You get the idea. Pro-birth means you fight tooth and nail for a child to be born but do not care what happens afterward. The most common excuse I have encountered revolves around money and the expense involved with creating and/or supporting programs to help parents raise their children.
I also recognize it is none of my fucking business, or anybody else's for that matter, to tell another woman what to do with her body. You may do as you please with your body when it only affects you but not when it affects the public at large.
While I can both sympathize and empathize with the "pro-life" side to a degree, I am pro-choice. This does not mean I am a "baby killer" or want death to occur. On the contrary, the thought of any life being lost hurts me. However, I recognize there are women in impossible situations that need access to safe abortions. Her reasons are her own, and it is not my place to judge.
Taking away access to legal abortion will not prevent more deaths. It may seem counterintuitive, but it could actually cause more people to die. Think about it: cutting access to a hospital or clinic designed, equipped, and staffed to handle such procedures takes away clean, sterile environments and professionals who know what they are doing. Without these places, women will be forced to seek alternatives from people who are not medically qualified and do not have the resources to perform the procedure safely. The risk of infection and mutilation greatly increases, which can lead to infertility at best and death at worst. Also, women may turn to natural remedies to induce an abortion. This increases the risk of poisonings since experimenting with plants can have deadly consequences if you do not know how to identify or prepare the ingredients. Then, there are the suicides. It is conceivable a woman with no financial means or legal ability to travel to a place where she can get a safe abortion or emotional support could reach depths of such despair that she would take her own life. In each of these instances, both parties are at risk; the death rate doubles if the mother dies.
To the states with the most strict abortion laws, I am curious to know how you plan to handle the cases where a woman has an ectopic pregnancy, which is a fertilized egg that implants outside the uterus. These are deadly to the mother, and the child cannot survive long outside the uterus (Mayo Clinic). What about instances where the baby has a genetic disease or chromosomal defect that either causes a miscarriage or a lifetime of pain with a low quality of life? When a miscarriage occurs, the fetus has to be removed from the mother’s body in order to prevent deadly infections from the decomposing corpse. A woman has to go through a procedure called dilation and curettage (D&C) to remove the baby from her body. Would this still be allowed regardless of when the miscarriage occurs? In the instance of chromosomal defect, are you planning to provide the support, services, medications, and equipment parents and caregivers will need to raise children with severe birth defects and disabilities at a reasonable cost?
I sincerely hope you also plan on expanding mental health resources for the girls and women that will become pregnant from suffering rape or incest. These events are traumatic enough on their own, but forcing a girl to have a daily reminder of what happened to her and put her through the experiences of birth and parenthood before she is ready is nothing more than cruel and unusual punishment. Did you know most girls get their first periods around age 12 (NHS) and that the human brain is not fully developed until age 25 (NPR)? Look me in the eye and tell me you are fine with a 12-year-old girl being forced to carry her rapist’s baby to term and then give birth.
Since over half the states will soon ban abortion in some form, they will have to prepare themselves for the consequences of generational trauma resulting from these laws. Women and girls forced to see pregnancies through could turn to drugs and/or alcohol to cope with the pain. This will create the circumstances for more overdose deaths and need for drug and alcohol treatment programs. Because the mothers turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms, it will increase the likelihood of children experiencing adverse childhood experiences (ACES), which could lead to "chronic health problems, mental illness, and substance use problems in adolescence and adulthood. ACEs can also negatively impact education, job opportunities, and earning potential" (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). While these states are at it, they might as well allocate more money for children’s services, social workers, and foster care. The system was swamped, and caseworkers were overwhelmed before the loss of Roe vs. Wade. I can only imagine how many more babies will be put up for adoption or into foster care now. The system could easily collapse.
I am also soaking up the ironies present with the whole situation. The people who scream, "My body, my choice" about the COVID vaccine are generally the ones vilifying, harassing, and condemning women seeking reproductive healthcare. Also, I find it interesting the Supreme Court would so overtly subvert the will of the People with its opinion on a firmly established legal precedent given 61% of Americans wanted to keep Roe vs. Wade (Pew Research Center). We are supposed to live in a democracy where the will of the People is upheld, not a theocracy where religion rules. It is also ironic that the place the Pilgrims fled to escape religious persecution in England and the country that boasts about its rights and freedoms more than any other has now become a place where people are persecuted if they do not prescribe to Christianity in some form. So much for freedom of religion and to worship how and if I please.
Proverbs 31:8-9 states, "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy." By declaring my support for Roe vs. Wade and the right to access safe abortions, I am doing just that. I am defending the rights of women, particularly women of color and those ensnared in poverty's vicious grasp, to have access to healthcare services they need. These demographics will suffer the most because they are already at a disadvantage from factors they cannot necessarily control. Yes, I am bringing race into this because it is an important facet of this conversation, and I would not be doing due diligence if I did not acknowledge the roles poverty and systemic racism play in reproductive healthcare decisions. I am speaking for those who are afraid of judgment and condemnation from friends, family, and their community. Nobody should be shamed for seeking medical services or advice. In short, I speak up for all women and girls who now face an uncertain future in America.
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