Olivia Julianna is an abortion rights advocate, activist, and political analyst from Houston, Texas. Olivia was formerly the political director for Gen-Z for Change. In this as-told-to for Her Campus, she gets real about how the result of the 2024 presidential election will impact reproductive rights.
Jan. 22 marks what would be the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that protected a pregnant person’s right to an abortion. As a young woman, I grew up thinking of Roe as a landmark decision that protected a freedom that would always be there — the freedom to make decisions about my own body. But, on June 23, 2022, that decision was officially overturned.
I have struggled with my reproductive health from a young age, being diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) when I was 12. Because I have PCOS, I am more likely to suffer a miscarriage. Because of Donald Trump and Texas governor Greg Abbott, I am more likely to be denied health care, and my doctors could be prosecuted for doing their job.
In December 2023, all eyes were on my home state of Texas as America watched Kate Cox’s heartbreaking story play out. Cox filed a lawsuit on Dec. 5 asking the courts to grant her access to an abortion after discovering the fetus had trisomy 18, which is a severe genetic condition with a low survival rate that also threatened Cox’s own health. MAGA ally Attorney General Ken Paxton and a group of judges — none of them medical professionals — told Cox she could not receive life-saving health care.
This is not the first time eyes were on Texas for a court case surrounding abortion access. Roe v. Wade was brought to the Supreme Court in 1973 by two young Texas women, Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington — graduates from the University of Texas law school. These two Texas attorneys in their late 20s and early 30s went to an all-male Supreme Court and argued the case that enshrined abortion in our constitution. Now, 51 years later, Paxton and a group of judges desecrated Coffee and Weddington’s hard-won victory by ensuring women like Kate Cox cannot get access to the life saving care they need. I wish I could say I was shocked, but ever since Donald Trump paved the way to overturning Roe, enabling MAGA Republicans to pass draconian bans like the one I live under in Texas, this has been the reality for millions of Americans across the country.
Because of Donald Trump, as of 2022, one out of every three people of reproductive age live under an abortion ban. And as of 2023, over 25 million women live in states where they can no longer make decisions about their own bodies. Women like Kate Cox have had to flee their home states just to access life-saving medical care. Doctors have been threatened with jail just for doing their job — and Donald Trump is proud to take full credit for all that cruelty.
I have traveled the United States advocating for reproductive freedom. I have spoken to young women in Texas who had to advocate for their autonomy in front of judges who will rule upon their reproductive future. I have hugged crying doctors in Georgia who have told me how painful it is to not be able to care for their patients. I have bonded with clinic volunteers in Missouri who have told me about how they have to work to send patients to Illinois to access care. I have seen the pain, the misery, and the heartache in the eyes of patients, providers, and activists alike.
Here’s the thing: Donald Trump wants to make the hellish reality that he’s created worse. It isn’t enough that millions are now living under a dystopian reality where they can’t make their own health care decisions. He wants to ban abortion nationwide, and he already has the plan to do it. His closest advisors and allies have already published 887 pages detailing how they’re going to use every tool at their disposal to attack abortion access nationwide. They have plans to bypass congress, to bypass the courts — to ban abortion by any means necessary, in any state. If that terrifies you, it should.
But Donald Trump should be scared, and his henchmen should be, too. Those same eyes I have seen full of misery, despair, and heartache are also full of an indistinguishable fire for justice and hope. Electing President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris this November means that Republicans won’t be able to pass a national abortion ban. Since Trump’s Supreme Court justices provided the deciding votes to overturn Roe, the president and vice president have done everything in their power to protect access to reproductive health care amid the ongoing attacks.
I know this not only from watching them in action, but from personal conversations. I have spoken with Vice President Harris about the reality citizens are living under here in Texas and across the nation. I have advocated for expanded resources in White House roundtables. I have spoken at length with members of Congress about what can be done. Ensuring Republicans do not regain access to these measures of power will protect us from further damage as we work to rebuild the freedoms they have undermined and attacked.
By re-electing Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, we will prevent MAGA Republicans from enacting a national abortion ban. We will be one step closer to restoring the rights and protections provided by Roe to all Americans, to ensure people have the freedom to make their own decisions about their health care.
This November, voters will face an important choice. A choice between MAGA Republicans and their anti-freedom agenda of taking away rights and dictating private health care decisions, and Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, who will protect and expand our rights. This is our once-in-a-generation moment when we have to stand up, defend democracy, and fight for our personal freedoms.
We must remember, these are not unprecedented challenges. Abortion had been banned before. Doctors have been criminalized before. Women have been controlled before.
We are facing the challenges of our mothers and grandmothers.
We are facing the challenges of Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington — and like them, we must fight until our freedom is guaranteed.