If you follow me on social media, you likely have seen me post quite a bit of pro-choice content since the overturning of Roe v Wade. I am very pro-choice and have always felt that way. And I am very vocal about my feelings. Things have been getting worse over time, but when the Supreme Court made its ruling, so many people lost their rights to healthcare that is so necessary.
I know that there are people who say that the ruling didn’t make abortions illegal, it just left it up to the states. But why should the state you live in decide what rights you have over your body? Not everyone has the luxury to be able to travel to another state to get the healthcare they might need or want. And for people who say that if you want to have rights you should just move to a state that allows it, that is a very privileged point of view. It’s very expensive to move (even for my move which was only 3 blocks was expensive). Not everyone has a job that they can transfer to a new state. They might live near family and not want to leave them.
And leaving it up to the states doesn’t have the best history. In the past, some states felt it was fine to enslave others. Shouldn’t everyone have the right to be free no matter where they are in the country? And what if other states want to create other rules. Maybe some states will require vasectomies unless someone is married and can prove they can financially care for a child. I don’t think a lot of people would be ok with that. How about some states not allowing for blood transfusions because some religions do not believe in those? Should you only get life-saving care if you live in a state that happens to allow it?
And I don’t feel like abortions are only ok if they are medically necessary. While I have not ended a pregnancy, I have several friends who have. And they all have had their reasons. Some were needed to save their lives, some were because the fetus had a condition that wasn’t compatible with life and they did not want to continue the pregnancy, and others did not feel ready or able to have a child. All of those are valid reasons. I know that there are adoptions, but that is an alternative to parenting, not pregnancy. Pregnancy is a risky time and can cause changes to someone that can last years or the rest of their lives. It is not right to force someone to go through that if they do not want to. And for everyone who says there is a waitlist for babies, that’s not a good reason to force others to go through a pregnancy. Nobody owes you a baby. And if you really have it in your heart to open your home to a baby or child that needs it, there are thousands of children in foster care that need homes. There are options to help children outside of adopting a baby.
I know some people say that if it’s medically necessary, it’s fine to end a pregnancy. But some of the new laws are very unclear about when doctors can save a woman’s life without risking their medical license or jail time. Ectopic pregnancies are not viable, and some states now require people to be actively dying to terminate the pregnancy instead of doing a much simpler surgery when they are still stable and not bleeding out. That’s already happening with some patients where the doctors have been meeting with lawyers and it can take hours before it’s approved for them to save the patient. There’s also someone who is early in pregnancy and just was diagnosed with cancer. She cannot receive cancer treatments as you cannot go through chemo while pregnant and it was not approved for her to terminate her pregnancy as her life is not at immediate risk. So if she could not travel to another state, she would have to delay life-saving treatment and by the time she could start her cancer may be too advanced to treat.
There are also cases like mine, where pregnancy could be very dangerous and life-threatening for me. But that’s only if my tumors rupture. What if they start to grow if I’m pregnant but they aren’t ruptured? Would I just have to wait around to see if they will and I bleed to death? Would I just wait to see if I get to live or if I will die even though there is a procedure that could save my life? And of course, there are cases of assault that result in pregnancy and there aren’t always exceptions for that, no matter how young someone might be.
But if you only think abortions are ok when they are due to assault or when someone’s life is at risk, then that is saying that you feel like an unwanted pregnancy is a punishment for having sex. That’s not right. Why should someone be punished for having sex when they don’t want to have a child? If you only believe in sex as a part of procreation, do you not believe in married couples having sex if they do not want to have a baby? And you can be on birth control and get pregnant, so using protection isn’t a guarantee. So do you want to punish someone who tried to not get pregnant but their birth control failed? How about in the states where they are trying to make some types of birth control illegal? I have heard people say that they are only trying to make some types of birth control illegal, but a copper IUD is on the list that they are trying to ban and that is the only type that I can use.
And then, there are the new issues that people are encountering because of the bans on abortions. There are medications that some people take that either can cause a miscarriage or cannot be used if someone is pregnant. I was on one of these medications in the past and had to sign paperwork agreeing I wouldn’t get pregnant. But these are necessary medications for conditions such as arthritis or lupus. But because of what they could do to a future fetus (not one that currently exists), there are some women who are being told they can no longer take the medication their doctors want them to take. Men can take them, but a woman cannot even if she’s not pregnant and signs paperwork saying they will not get pregnant. A non-existent fetus is causing people to lose the right to use medications to manage their medical conditions.
I know that I live in a state that is protecting the right to terminate pregnancies, but that’s just because of the leadership we have in our state now. What if that changes? Without the right to not be forced to carry out a pregnancy being a right for everyone in the country, anyone in any state is at risk of losing that right. And as so many people have said for so many years, banning abortions will not end abortions, it will only end safe abortions. I know people who would do anything they would need to do to end an unwanted pregnancy, no matter how risky it is.
I want to be hopeful for the future of this country, especially with a huge majority of citizens wanting abortions to remain legal. The few people on the Supreme Court do not represent the will of the majority, even if they did get to make the decision for us. Maybe there will be enough changes politically to restore this right. But I don’t know. It’s scary seeing how little some politicians understand about healthcare and the decisions they are making. They have said things such as ectopic pregnancies being viable and able to be moved to a uterus, even though no doctor says that and they all agree they are non-viable. Some do not understand that fertilization does not mean an embryo will result in a pregnancy because it might not implant. And there are some politicians who believe that there has never been a time when pregnancy put someone’s life at risk despite all the stories of when exactly that has happened. People who do not understand pregnancies are the ones making laws about them and because of their confusion, the laws make no sense and will result in deaths.
I just hope that things can change before too many people die because they are not allowed to be saved by doctors or they do whatever it takes to end an unwanted pregnancy. I will always fight for the right for people to choose what they want to do with their bodies. Not just for abortions. If you are diagnosed with treatable cancer but decide to not use any traditional treatments, I believe you should be able to do what you feel is right. If you prefer to use prayer over chemo, I want you to be able to do that. If you don’t want to be forced to donate an organ or blood, I agree and you should not have to do anything to your own body that you do not want. And nobody should be forced to go through a pregnancy and all the life-altering things that can come from that either. Even if you do not parent, pregnancy is not a punishment and nobody is an incubator.
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