You have dreams: to go to college, play basketball, travel the world, open a bakery, climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, teach chemistry, go to outer space, act on Broadway.
For the past half-century, this was the promise for women in the United States. We had the right to decide when and whether to become mothers. We could finish school, find a career, and have a family when we were ready — a right that women have around the world.
But five justices on the Supreme Court have apparently decided to take this all away. With one pending decision, they are poised to say that for the rest of our foreseeable future the government and politicians will make the most personal decisions about your bodies and your pregnancies. Your generation will be the first one in 50 years that has lost the right to determine your future.
If — or more likely when — the decision is final, 26 states are prepared to move to quickly limit this fundamental freedom. At least 13 states have “trigger laws” on the books meant to ban abortion as soon as Roe is overturned. Make no mistake, this is something they’ve been waiting and planning for. Thirty-six million Americans — nearly half of the women of reproductive age in the United States — stand to lose safe and legal abortion access. And leaders in the Republican Party have made clear that they’re open to introducing a national ban on abortion in Congress.
If you cannot drive for hours or get on a plane to reach a state that provides legal abortion access, you will likely be forced to carry an unexpected pregnancy. If you and your family have the means to travel, you could still face danger. One in 50 pregnancies in the United States is ectopic — the leading cause of first-trimester maternal death. In a troubling development, some states have proposed legislation criminalizing lifesaving care for ectopic pregnancies. Even if some anti-abortion laws technically have exceptions for these occurrences, the language can be deliberately vague and delay necessary care. Who knows what may happen when Roe is overruled?
In my home state of Texas, a barbaric bounty-hunter abortion ban has been in place since last September, making any abortion after six weeks of pregnancy illegal. That’s before many people even know they are pregnant. The director of a clinic in Lubbock told me, “A college student came in for a pregnancy test, and then we had to tell her that abortion is completely illegal in our city. The closest place she could go was to get a ride to Albuquerque, five hours away.”
Fear is the overwhelming sentiment that medical staff report about pregnant people in Texas. “They don’t know what is legal, and they don’t know who they can talk to. Anyone who asks another person for help to terminate a pregnancy puts that family member, teacher, or clergy person at risk,” the clinic director said.
As a mom, I’m angry that my kids and others of this next generation will live in a world filled with this fear, a world in which they do not have the right to control their own body. It is on all of us to stand up and fight back.
My generation wasn’t cynical enough to fully comprehend the extent of the Republican Party’s willingness to trade away people’s lives for political power and control. It is important to know that this fight does not end once abortion is criminalized. Already, Republican politicians are threatening to outlaw forms of birth control, like IUDs, of which they don’t approve.
From climate change to college affordability, government and the people who run it have a disproportionate influence on your life. Get involved. Protest. Volunteer. Organize. This fall, you and other young voters will also have another crucial opportunity to help decide the political direction of America. You have a choice to make: Elect people who trust women or vote for candidates who have pledged to roll back women’s progress by 50 years.
Abortion is a deeply personal matter, as is pregnancy. It is because these issues are so important that we must have the right to make our own decisions. No one can really know the circumstances of others — and that is especially true for politicians and judges, many of whom will never be pregnant.
I am ashamed of the politicians that are using raw political power to take away your rights. It will take unprecedented political activism to restore what is rightfully ours: the ability to make our own decisions about our bodies. I will be right there with you, hand in hand. It will not be an easy fight, but it is a fight we can win. Let’s get to work.
Stay up-to-date with the politics team. Sign up for the Teen Vogue Take
