Stay Mad: Don't let them normalize post-Roe horrors

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Generations of women who have had legal and illegal abortions should come forward

with their stories.

Here's mine. I knew a girl in 1975 who just turned 16 and discovered she was pregnant. She had been having sex since 14. Roe was in place.

There was no way that she was going to have this pregnancy conclude with a baby. Her boyfriend was 21 and working at a golf course. They had no intention of getting married and raising a family. It was recreational sex.

Her family would have disowned her. Especially her father as she was the Golden Child. Even if her parents secreted her away to either have an abortion or have the baby (to be adopted, of course), her life would be ruined. First of all, she'd lose her prized status in the family. Then, forget college. Then, her prospects for marriage (on her parents' terms) would be severely compromised.

Her boyfriend didn't have the money for the abortion. Her sister coughed up $214 to pay for it. (Why that amount? 214 represented Valentine's Day and her sister wanted to be certain not to confuse love with sex.) BTW, that's $1,234.78 in 2023 dollars.

And so, two months pregnant, she and her boyfriend took off for an afternoon and got the abortion. She never told her parents and went on to college and marriage. And kept her Golden Child status.

She was spared abject emotional, mental, and perhaps physical abuse from her father. She was spared having to maybe raise a child she was unprepared to raise (and still is). 49 years ago.