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Opinion: I almost died trying to have an abortion. I fear my students may face the same fate


While no one can predict how the judges will rule, the fact that they have agreed to hear this case is alarming. Rarely does a high court review the constitutionality of previously decided law. Even if the Supreme Court has heard challenges against Roe in the past, it has always on the left fundamental constitutionality of the right to abortion.

However, despite their endorsement record, I’m still scared. I’m at an age where I can remember what life was like for women in the years before Roe.

Being of childbearing age in the 1960s, like my friends and I, meant knowing that our bodies and our futures don’t belong to us. Whatever we hope to do with our lives can be compromised by the whims of nature or by a thoughtless mistake or a contraceptive error.

Young people, then and now, are sexual beings. But before Roe, women paid the highest price for sexual expression. In my circles back then, I knew women who had had horrible abortions, sometimes without anesthesia. After a friend had an illegal abortion, she had a pelvic infection and had to be sterile.

It was equally common at the time that young people were unwisely forced into early marriage as their families tried to “legitimize” an unwanted pregnancy. These unions rarely last.

In my sophomore year of college, I got pregnant. This was a decade before legalization. At first, I tried to have an abortion on my own with various home remedies. No effect. During one attempt – which involved an overdose of a drug rumored to be an abortifacient – I nearly died. I’m 19 years old.

Why did the reversal of Roe v.  Wade would be a disaster for conservatives
What saved me was connecting to an underground network that led to Dr. Robert Spencer. For the women of my time, Spencer is a legend. He is a real doctor – not all those who provide abortion services – who performs the surgery because he believes that women have a right to have it done. His fee was $100 (about $900 in today’s money).

I can say without hesitation that without his care, my life would have taken a completely different direction. Today I would not be a writer and a professor.

My students now have great lives. I was very impressed by their selections. mediumThey got married almost 10 years later than my contemporaries. They also give birth later. In my experience, they seem more ready and excited to be parents.

To my knowledge, no one has suffered the trauma – often enough among my peers – of giving birth to an illegitimate child and then being pressured to give it up for adoption.

I teach them science journalism and opinion writing. Occasionally, a student will ask me to suggest an idea for an essay or op-ed topic. On a few occasions I’ve come up with, “What about speculating about what your life would be like if Roe v. Wade were abolished?”

It seems to be a topic that, based on their age, can spark their interest and form the basis for a passionate essay.

But I was wrong. In the two cases where I recommended the course, the students looked at me as if I was talking about something as far removed from their experience as the War of 1812. One young woman even responded with a question. “That will never happen. “

Another suggested that it wouldn’t be a problem. She was “simply traveling to a state where it’s legal.”

It is not my duty to argue with students about their point of view. And so I didn’t tell her that at the time I needed an abortion, that unless someone had the money to go abroad, there really were no such shelters. Although some states termination is allowed if a woman’s life is in serious danger, it’s mostly hospital committees that ruled as to whether the operation is warranted. In fact, hospitals all seek to avoid abortion, except in the most drastic cases.
I didn’t tell my students, though perhaps I should, about one of the most notorious cases of the era where an Arizona television host, Sherri Finkbine, had accidentally taken the fetal-deforming drug thalidomide while in the early stages of pregnancy. When Finkbine tried to have an abortion at the local hospital, it was turned down. She had to fly to Sweden for the operation.
Nor did I mention that the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights consulting organization based in New York and Washington, DC, estimate that if the court overturns Roe, about 26 states “are likely to move as quickly as possible to ban abortion to the maximum extent possible.” (Louisiana, Mississippi, North Dakota, Texas and Oklahoma are between states issued prediction rules to do exactly that.)
According to Guttmacher, almost one in four An American woman will have an abortion before she turns 45. That is to say, if one adds up the statistics from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Guttmacher Institute. Yes collectThe number of American women who have benefited from the legalization of abortion is in the tens of millions.

Yet despite these numbers, too many Americans have accepted the smug attitudes of some of my students.

In many ways, my students’ assumptions resemble those of many public sectors. For them and others coming of age post-Roe America, legal abortion is the norm. It’s just there. While they may have brought icons for pro-choice protests or contributed a few dollars to Planned Parenthood, they don’t feel reproductive rights are an issue that needs attention. their consistent interest.

On the other side, Americans who call themselves “pro-life” and act to limit abortion rights have been much more adamant.

Ever since Roe’s decision was announced, they to swear to destroy it. Their strategy is a centralized strategy where, step by step, they exercise access to abortion cumbersome, and for many, especially in the biblical states, extremely difficult to obtain. Moreover, they link their goals adhere to the Republican policy platform and support judicial candidates they believe are sympathetic to their cause.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday including six Republican appointees.

If you’re a pro-selector, like I am, that’s not a very hopeful picture. Of course, we may get a surprise. Judges have been known to create unexpected hiccups. For example, Justice David Souter appointed as a conservative of President George HW Bush. For many years he moved to the center and finally voted with libertarians.
Memorandum to protect abortion rights in the US
For the sake of the students, I hope that we may find ourselves surprised by Chief Justice John Roberts and maybe even Justice Brett Kavanaugh. It is sad to think that the bright and talented people in my class could go through the suffering that has haunted so many of my generation.

Whether Roe survives or not, the lesson we all must learn is that defending our rights – whether speech, citizenship, privacy or reproductive rights – requires vigilance. regular sense.

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