I believe maybe Pro Life voters have this idea that their votes are going toward "protecting the lives of babies" but what we've seen now is that these laws in a Post-Roe world expand well beyond what they think they are voting for. Or maybe they do know what they are voting for, that's why it’s important that the majority of us stand up and fight, for all women, even those in Conservative strong holds. Here is my story and why I’m so passionate about this topic.
In 2018, I started bleeding at work. I was 8 weeks pregnant and no one at work knew yet. I was about to embark on a trip from the Super Bowl in Minneapolis directly to the Winter Olympics in South Korea. I ran into my boss's office equally panicked and mortified. I called my doctor and the nurse was lovely. She told me she'd get me in immediately but if I filled up two pads with blood in an hour to go directly to the ER.
I sat in a Wendy's parking lot balling, bleeding through multiple pads. I was throwing up in a bag in my lap on the way to the hospital. My husband was on his way. We got to the hospital and they did an ultra sound. The nurse said I needed to be on bed rest for 10 days. The pregnancy wasn't exactly not viable, but in hindsight looking at healthy pregnancy ultra sounds, it wasn’t.
I proceeded to bleed and bleed and bleed for 10 days. Through my underwear, my clothes, onto couch cushions. Day in and day out. My doctor called me daily to check in. My body was expelling a pregnancy and was able to push out this unviable mass of cells. Many women have something called a D&C, which is a medical procedure when their bodies can't naturally expel an inviable pregnancy. This is a very common procedure for a miscarriage.
I went to my doctor 10 days later to get a check up. They did an ultra sound and there was no longer any signs of pregnancy. I was not able to go to the Super Bowl because I was in the process of miscarrying, but was medically cleared at that time to go directly to the Olympics. I got home from South Korea a month later and had a medical bill for my original ultra sound at the ER and subsequent doctors appointments for the miscarriage. "Abortion" was listed as the charge because that is the broad medical term for terminating a pregnancy.
It is not the government's role to hinder me or any other woman from getting the care we need. Roe vs. Wade gave all of us a choice in how we managed our own health care and pregnancies. People need to realize those insane stories about "murdering babies" is just that. Insane. Women will die. They already do in this country because of our poor health care and high maternal mortality rates.
This will only make it worse.
If I lived in certain Conservative-run states today, I literally could have bled out and died, all while wanting a baby. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if you do or don’t want a pregnancy. Abortion is a medical procedure that is a right for all women. Absolutely no one, other than a woman, and definitely not the government, should have a say in those decisions. We have to fight, and I will fight and continue to fight for these rights.