Our Abortion Stories: 'The Baby's Life Came First, Apparently, so I Was Sent Home'
(Read some of the stories are at the link below)
Our Abortion Stories: ‘The Baby’s Life Came First, Apparently, so I Was Sent Home’
6/16/2022 by Michelle Moulton and Phoebe Kolbert
Ms. readers share their experiences of abortion pre- and post-Roe v. Wade.
Activists march holding portraits of women who died because of the lack of legal right to abortion on International Women’s Day, March 8, 2022 in Los Angeles. (Frederic J. BROWN / AFP via Getty Images)
The Supreme Court is poised to overrule the longstanding precedents of Roe v. Wade, representing the largest blow to women’s constitutional rights in history. A new series from Ms., Our Abortion Stories, chronicles readers’ experiences of abortion pre- and post-Roe. Abortions are sought by a wide range of people, for many different reasons. There is no single story. Telling stories of then and now shows how critical abortion has been and continues to be for women and girls.
*****Prior to Roe, those seeking abortions were forced to find secret and sometimes unsafe providers through word of mouth, borrow cash, and travel hundreds of miles for procedures. It was a risk. Some women were injured. Some were raped. Some were rendered infertile. SOME DIED. *****
The Court’s ruling in the Roe decision greatly improved the lives of generations of women, giving them previously unknown levels of freedom, autonomy and control over their lives. Even still, abortion access is illusory to many—particularly women of color, low-income and rural women.
Women who have had abortions have spoken out many times during the last 49 years. Millions have marched in countless rallies and demonstrations for reproductive rights. By a margin of two to one, Americans support the tenets of Roe.
In January, Ms. relaunched its iconic “We Have Had Abortions” petition campaign with the encouragement and support of some of the original signers of the original 1972 petition, in which 53 well-known U.S. women declared that they had undergone abortions—despite laws in most states rendering the procedure illegal. The Washington Post credited the 1972 petition with the “start of a powerful strategy in the U.S. abortion rights movement: ending the secrecy that had kept many women out of the fight.”
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https://msmagazine.com/2022/06/16/abortion-stories-pre-roe-v-wade/