Throughout my current years of young adulthood, I have bought two Plan Bs, three pregnancy tests, and one box of contraceptives, all at my local CVS. It doesn’t matter whether they were for me or someone else, but for the sake of the conversation, what’s important is how easy it is to access these items necessary for our health. Since I was the eldest of my friends, I took the “motherly role” and tried to help them when they were in situations where they felt like they couldn’t turn to their parents. Luckily overtime this fostered them to go to their parents and ask for these tools to protect their health. By putting myself in these positions, I have learned a lot about women’s health and overall sexual health in general. But, it didn’t prepare us for what is going on in our current state of the world — the overturning of Roe v. Wade. What the *bleep* is going on?
First of all, what is Roe v. Wade? It was a life-altering change made to women’s rights, granting us the right to safe abortion and other access to feminine care. Now in 2022, the right-leaning politicians are trying to take that right away from us. By doing this, there is a scary reality that, as women, we could potentially lose control over our rights, which is really terrifying, especially as a woman of color. As we have seen throughout history, women, in general, have fewer rights than men, but as a woman of color it is harder to have any basic rights that our white counterparts have. In all honesty, though, it feels like we are all going downhill into a cruel-dystopian society where marginalized groups have no rights whatsoever. To most, this may sound like a stretch, but as seen from recent events, like the overturning and the creation of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, it makes me think that we will lose it all at the hands of white power trying to oppress us all. As I sit here writing this, I am at a loss for words. Right after the news outbreak regarding the overturning, I facetimed my friend in Missouri, where she described her experience with the news. She expressed how Missouri seemed proud to be overturning this constitutional right and would give out cash rewards to anyone who turns in someone who got an in or out-of-state abortion. To my dismay and shock, I just stuttered out a few syllables…I mean, what do you even say to that? She just looked at me with despair in her eyes. It took everything in me to give her any chance of hope that I had left. We tried to put ourselves in other’s shoes, like what if we were in a situation where we needed any abortion in a time when they were illegal? As someone who has always been pro-choice, this would seem like a simple answer, go to Planned Parenthood and get the abortion. Never in a million years did I think we would lose this right. Imagine a nineteen-year-old girl with no financial means to support a child having to go into an alley to get the fetus removed by a hanger? Instead, people decided to blame and shame a girl in this situation or any other, for that matter. They feel comfortable arguing “We care about that child” or “You are a murderer,” when in reality, they don’t care about the children who will be placed in foster care or are on the streets because their parents weren’t able to support them. So, to anyone who supports this overturning, I want to make it clear that you have no validity in saying that you care about these “children.” You stand on your false narrative of being morally correct, but if you open your eyes to any of these issues, hopefully, the problem will smack you across the face. This overturning will hurt, harm, and potentially kill many women, not just for the loss of abortion but for anything related to our health. This is the first step in having us lose it all. My plea to all of us women is to keep fighting. I know it is easy for me to say, but no matter who we are, we must come together against these oppressive factors and fight the good fight. I dream that one day, from healthcare to the workforce, we will be on the same level of equality in all aspects of life.