Abortion is Part of the Fabric of Our Families, Our Schools, and Our Country
Attending a protest at SCOTUS, June 2022
I am still upset that this is the focus of this blog. Last month, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and in this decision, stripped us of our right to privacy and the fundamental right to manage our health by seeking abortion care. At last count, nine states have outlawed abortion, and another eight actively seek to enact a ban through the legislature. On top of that, numerous other states have restricted access or engaged in legal suits to further restrict access. We may find ourselves living in a country where half the states outlaw or severely restrict access to abortion care. Here in the District of Columbia, our Mayor and DC Council will fight like heck to keep our rights intact - but other states will not be so fortunate.
This issue hits home for me in a few ways. Right after undergrad, I worked as a counselor in a clinic that provided abortion care and was an adoption agency. There are many reasons that a person may seek abortion care or to place their child for adoption or to seek to parent. All of these reasons are valid - full stop, period, end of story. Pregnancy is an individual journey that will vary from person to person, and the government should not force us to carry a pregnancy to term. When we decide when and whether to become pregnant, we are making these decisions to protect ourselves, our families (current and future), our financial stability, our educational goals, our career prospects, and a cascade of other aspects of life that many cisgender men take for granted. It cannot be stated enough that access to abortion care is reproductive health, and key to our ability to live our lives on our own terms.
A few years into what became a career for me advocating reproductive rights, my mom shared a story that I’ll never forget. I kept her story in confidence, until this year. She passed away a few years ago, and I have to believe that now would be the time, if ever, that she would want others to know her story. In the late 1960s, a few years before she had me, she was pregnant and couldn't be. She had her reasons, and I also know that as a teacher in the 1960s, she would be forced to resign if she were pregnant. She loved teaching; it was her calling. She needed to terminate the pregnancy, but abortion was illegal. She told me her boyfriend found someone who would perform the abortion, and she was told to meet this man in an empty apartment. He walked in, laid out his surgical instruments, and poured a bottle of alcohol over them to sterilize them. He put her to sleep, and she woke up hours later alone in the empty apartment. It was scary, but it was done. I remain grateful that this man left her uterus intact and without an infection, and also that she was able to get pregnant and have me in 1971.
My college-age children and I set up a family fund when she passed away, and we dedicate a significant portion of the fund’s resources to increasing abortion access by removing financial barriers to care. Abortion is part of the fabric of my family, of every family, and of this country. Banning abortion care does not make it go away; it just makes it less safe and more isolating. Those seeking care have to do it in secret, traveling alone, so as not to incriminate their support system. Bans on our bodies disrupt our ability to achieve family dreams, financial stability, educational goals, and career opportunities.
Today, much of my work is focused at the intersection of health and education equity in K-12 schools. My passion and expertise in adolescent reproductive and sexual health policy brought me to school health. Why? Because I know that health care and education are linked, and we cannot fully have one without the other. I am certain women, as a whole, would not have seen the educational and professional successes we have seen in the past several decades without this right.
So where does that leave us? While advocates and lawyers work to restore our rights, we know that schools employ many people who may find themselves pregnant, by choice or not. Abortion rights have always been a workplace issue for K-12 schools, even if school leaders didn’t know it. Maybe we can’t legally be fired anymore for being pregnant, but in states where abortion care is severely restricted or outlawed, school leaders will be called upon to give employees extra time off to travel out of state for care; students will also need absences excused to travel out of state. Schools may anticipate having more pregnancies among staff and students, more requests for FMLA, an increased need for substitutes, and an increase in the need for Title IX accommodations for pregnant students and those on medical leave after birth.
Finally, ensure you’re partnering with community-based sexual health organizations, building school-based health centers that can provide birth control, and teaching good, comprehensive sex ed. Leverage your social-emotional learning and mental health teams to build school environments where young people feel that they belong, develop hopes and dreams for the future and have the confidence to make decisions for themselves that advance these dreams. I know one thing for sure - we are better as a community. And, please, remember that our democracy needs our participation to protect abortion rights, so vote!
Resources:
Where to find an abortion provider: https://www.abortionfinder.org
How to get the abortion pill: https://aidaccess.org
Planned Parenthood: https://www.plannedparenthood.org