Solid ground

I have struggled for most of my pregnancy-capable life, trying to reckon what I believe in the abortion debate. Though never anti-abortion, I couldn’t make myself align with any of the familiar slogans. Even the word “choice” left me feeling off-kilter.

In my way of thinking, “choice” is a word for selecting shampoos or cuts of meat ... not for deciding the best medical procedure to ensure a patient endures the least harm.

What should have occurred to me sooner was obvious: abortion is part of basic medical care for women. 

Truly. There was so much I didn’t know about myself or my body. Or that other bodies could be so different than mine. There was so much I didn’t (and still don’t) understand about medicine, or how difficult it can be to get adequate care even in the best of circumstances, let alone the most trying.

I had no idea about all the medical situations that could necessitate an abortion later in pregnancy. Or how sudden these tragedies could present. I just assumed as a vast majority do, that late-term-abortion was a thing that should be rightly restricted.

But I was wrong. Late-term abortion isn’t even a medical term; but Triploidy, with a transverse lie, at 37 weeks gestation, is most certainly a medical event that induction can’t solve. Abortion would be the least harmful to the patient, but a doctor must do a c-section because of oppressive laws that the medically uninformed make.

Woman are living, breathing people who are entitled to the best possible care and the ability to decide just what that means for themselves.

In terms of statistics, I could count myself solidly among the three-fourths of women who went through her reproductive life with no need for abortion services. But I knew many who didn’t enjoy the same luck.

And then I had a daughter.

Having to imagine a life with fewer available interventions for her needs makes me furious.

For her, and for the person, I was at her age.

Why should any of us have to endure any shame or burden to prevent pregnancy, which can be as life-changing as any other serious medical condition we encounter.

Is it because an undue burden has always been on the person with the uterus - the patient? Why have the religious beliefs of the provider - even about the prescribing of birth control medication and devices - consistently outweighed the human rights of the patient? 

Pregnancy and birth are dangerous. Having had two c-sections and long-lasting complications from that surgery, I know the downside. But a cesarean is a medical procedure for a difficult birth. Imagine if we decided to take that off the table?

Abortion is a medical procedure women need for many, many reasons, none of which require the judgment of a priest or a politician. Nor should women be forced to walk through a gauntlet of hateful speech makers, or witness their doctors get murdered, as they navigate the complicated practice of reproductive healthcare.

And now as I watch states pass laws that will kill women and endanger health, as I watch us devolve, I feel the full weight and sorrow of having stood on the sidelines, thinking women’s rights were ever on solid ground.