Recently, the Supreme Court made a historic decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. The previous precedent gave women the legal right to receive an abortion but the medical procedure has become illegal in certain states, causing an uproar among those who are pro-choice throughout America.
“If I didn’t have the choice that I did then, my life would be completely different right now. I was 19 and I went to a party, and I was a very different person when I was 19, and I got raped, and that resulted in pregnancy” says Marie Smith a student at MCCC who asked to go by a different name to protect her privacy.
Further, Smith explains how her personal experience pushes her belief in the importance of having a choice in America.
“What about those girls who are like ‘I wanna go to college, I wanna do this and that,’ and end up getting pregnant? Are they just supposed to drop out and let go of their dreams? Like it’s not the 50s anymore. It wasn’t right then, let alone being right now.”
Similar to Smith, many women in America are protesting the change in abortion laws from state to state. The court’s verdict has let the states decide the legality of abortion for their residents. Almost immediately after the landmark decision, numerous conservative states decided to make abortion illegal.
The states that have chosen to make abortion illegal, make a timeline for the procedure and make it illegal to leave their state to find places that still keep abortion legal.
Ohio, Texas, Arkansas, and Mississippi are some examples of the many states that have chosen to make abortion illegal or illegal after a certain period of weeks that give women a short deadline to terminate their pregnancy.
According to Yana Markidan, a gynecologist at Antheia Gynecology, “Women that have unplanned pregnancies typically realize that once they miss their period by a week or two, they know, ‘oh something’s not right’. And sometimes some women have the typical symptoms, like breast tenderness, nausea, and feeling fatigued but a lot of women don’t. A lot of women realize it when they skip their period.”
Ohio specifically has made abortion illegal after 6 weeks with no exceptions for rape or incest, a deadline that gives women a small window to go forward with the procedure.
Recently, after the precedent was established, a 10 -year old girl was denied an abortion after being raped by 27-year-old Gershon Fuentes in Ohio state. The child and her guardians traveled to a clinic that provided the procedure in Indianapolis, Indiana to terminate the pregnancy.
This case has been utilized as a method by the non-partisan group Mothers Against Greg Abbott’s abortion ban. Within the ad, a doctor is shown talking to a mother who isn’t on the screen, describing how healthy the baby will be, but when the doctor leaves the mother is merely a young girl.
Dr. Markidan explains the problem that society may face as women find desperate ways to terminate their unwanted pregnancies.
Dr. Markidan says, “People are already taking high doses of birth control, you know trying to terminate pregnancies. There are people, where there is money to be made, who will take advantage of people in that desperate situation. It was terrible, I worked with physicians who were there before abortions became legal, and when you hear their stories it’s horrible what women are going through.”
Smith says, “I am very ‘pro-the woman knowing what’s best for her.’ Because me, at 19, wasn’t financially stable, I was living with my mom you know. I was in no way ready for that, I think it was a turning point in my life. Again, if I did not have that choice I would be a completely different person, in a completely different situation. And I wouldn’t be able to settle for the things I wanted, I would have to settle for the things I needed so that the kid was okay”
All over America, people have been protesting the Supreme Court’s verdict and exercising their right to challenge the decision of the court.
What is more, joining them in the protests was Congresswoman Bonnie Watson-Coleman. Coleman was arrested over the summer during an abortion protest outside the Supreme Court.
In an interview with The VOICE, Coleman says, “With this important election coming up, on November the 8th, people have a choice, do you want to vote for people who believe in people, and country over politics? Or do you want to empower those who will take rights away, and will just empower the 1% that has benefited from everything that has happened in the former president’s administration?”
However, while abortion may become illegal in certain states, New Jersey still continues to allow women to terminate their pregnancies for their own reasons.
New Jersey’s governor, Phil Murphy, has signed the Freedom of Reproductive Choice Act to protect the reproductive rights of women.
Additionally, according to the official site for New Jersey State, Murphy remarked that “While I signed historic legislation in January codifying a woman’s right to abortion into state law, I am prepared to take whatever action I can to secure a woman’s full bodily autonomy and expand access to reproductive freedom.”
When asked for advice for young women that may be struggling with unwanted abortion, Smith says “Don’t blame yourself. You will always know what’s best for your life and your body and nobody else can tell you otherwise.”
