I’ve had abortions, and lessons on sanctity of life

I’ve had two abortions. They were both non-viable fetuses (no heartbeat) but I was definitely pregnant for a while. And, to protect my health, they had to be scraped from my uterus. Today, if Roe v. Wade is overturned, my surgeons would be jailed, and I would have had to wait for my body to release them.

Abortion has always mattered deeply to me. I remember going to a meeting the summer of my sophomore year in college at the Stamford Women’s Club to celebrate the passage of this ground-breaking law.

I even marched on Washington with a friend, when it was in danger in the 80s.

I must admit that once I was pregnant, even if only briefly, I started thinking a little differently about life. Maybe those cells wouldn’t turn into a baby. But it was still life. I still totally believed in a woman’s right to choose but it wasn’t as cut-anddried as it was before.

What makes people believe they can tell others how to live their lives? I just don’t get it. You don’t want there to be abortions? Don’t get one. And why are men deciding what I can do with my body? Many of them sure didn’t want to be told to wear masks or not be allowed to carry a loaded firearm at an airport. But they want to tell me what I do with my uterus.

Historically, the U.S. Supreme Court rarely overturns decisions. From 1789 to 2020, there were almost 26,000 Supreme Court decisions in this country. In all that time, the court has reversed its own constitutional precedents barely one-half of 1 percent of the time.

So even though the Supreme Court has done it before, it’s never eliminated a precedent on something as controversial as this.

Cable news now replay all the times Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch talked obliquely about their views on Roe v. Wade, implying they would leave it alone, when they were nominated for the Court. Many of us knew at the time they were talking out of both sides of their mouths.

What’s even more frightening is the other precedents that could be set down. Same-sex marriage. Affirmative action.

But I remember the days of women dying from coat-hanger abortions or having to meet someone in a secret location to perform an abortion.

My anger isn’t just that they’re taking away my choice. They’re trying to make me live like they do. Yes, have your religion and your beliefs. Don’t foist them on me.

I did go on to have a son, who turns 21 this year. And yes, he did teach me about the sanctity of life. But I believe this is, or was, a free country and everyone is entitled to the way they want to live their lives, not be ordered by others to live the way they want them to.