Today is the 51st anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, which enshrined abortion as a protected right under the U.S. Constitution. I was born almost a decade after the decision. I never knew what it was like to live without protected abortion rights—until 2022, when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
I grew up in a conservative Christian town in Southern California. As vicious as anti-abortion extremists were, and as much as they fetishized graphic propaganda, I knew they ultimately had little power over my healthcare decisions. Despite the right wing’s constant attacks on reproductive rights, I never genuinely thought that would change.
Now, though, the reality for my two daughters is completely different. We still live in California, where abortion is still legal and relatively accessible—but, with the cost of housing spiraling out of control, I have no idea how long that will be the case. As my kids grow up and start thinking about college and careers, they’ll have to make subtle calculations that I never had to. Which states are the safest for people with uteruses? Which are the most hostile? What will their plan be if they accidentally get pregnant, or if a wanted pregnancy goes awry?
To be clear, my kids and I have a lot of privilege here. I’m sharing my experience because it’s the experience I have, but there are already horror stories proliferating throughout the country. Recently, one woman in Texas died from pregnancy complications after the state’s abortion ban prevented doctors from giving her potentially life-saving treatment options. Lives are being lost and ruined as you read this article.
Plus, Republicans’ latest tactics in their war on reproductive rights make it clear that we can’t just lean on states in which abortion is still accessible. (As if dropping everything and leaving one’s home state were doable for most Americans anyway.) Republicans are hard at work making abortion harder to obtain everywhere in the U.S. They’re chipping away at access to the abortion pill Mifepristone, both through bizarrely worded legislation, and by trying to remove the drug from the market altogether. They’re trying to ban the made-up crime of “abortion trafficking,” which would bar people from crossing state lines to get medical care.
Abortion access is an issue that many people think will never affect them until it suddenly does. Reproductive rights in the U.S. have been under attack my entire life, but now that the safety net undergirding them is gone, we’re in a new, grim reality. It’s a reality I wish younger generations didn’t have to live in.
(featured image: Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images)
