San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Why so little concern for women?
After the oppressive U.S. Supreme Court’s decision June 24 to overturn Roe v. Wade, and nearly 50 years of precedent protecting the right to abortion, Marisa B. Perez-Diaz, posted her outrage on Facebook.
Like many women, Perez holds many titles. She’s a wife, mother, Texas State Board of Education member, third-year Ph.D. student, foundation executive and business owner. Like many women, her heart, mind and soul were heavy. Her message resonated.
Then her second post came with caution: “WARNING this will be LOUD, VULNERABLE, and MY CHOICE!!!”
The 15-second video of Perez giving birth to her third child, Sánti, was difficult to watch, but I marveled at her courage. There is no video of me giving birth to my son, and even if there were, I wouldn’t share it.
Perez-Diaz, 37, chose to share it because “after a weekend watching so many celebrate the oppression of women, relegating us to second-class citizens, I could not help but share the reality of what SCOTUS has just forced upon every female (and trans male) of reproductive age.”
And her husband, Rafael “Rafa” Diaz, an education technology executive and school board trustee, supported her. “Powerful words. Incredible vulnerability. Her choice,” he wrote. “It’s way beyond our time to take an active role in family planning and protecting women. Too easily do men escape the reality and responsibility of children.”
Her video offers a glimpse of the pain and trauma of a healthy, uncomplicated delivery for a woman in a loving marriage with health insurance and resources.
She’s a proud, loving mom to three beautiful children: Catalina Yaretzi, 6, Rafael IV, 5, and Santiago “Sánti” Jadiel, 1. She thrives at motherhood and advocates reproductive freedom. She knows every pregnancy story is different; for many pregnant people, especially people of color, it can be complicated and dangerous.
University of California San Francisco’s Turnaway Study examined the effects of denying abortions and found that women and their families experience years of economic insecurity, poorer physical health, reduced ambitions and negative effects on their relationships with their children.
Like so many, Perez-Diaz questions why anti-abortion policy goes so far as not to exempt rape and incest pregnancies, even in children.
We’re already beginning to see the awful effects of reversing Roe v. Wade: reports of a 10-year-old child rape victim in Ohio who was six weeks pregnant and forced to travel to Indiana for an abortion.
Pro-choice isn’t pro-abortion.
Someone can value life, love babies and children, and not support forced pregnancy by
our government.
The abortion ban is dangerous not only because abortions will become unsafe, as they were before Roe v. Wade, but also because pregnancy and childbirth are inherently dangerous.
Doctors and researchers have been sounding the alarm with science and data. The American Medical Association asserts the Supreme Court ruling is “an egregious allowance of government intrusion into medicine.”
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists tweeted: “Today’s decision is a direct blow to bodily autonomy, reproductive health, patient safety and health equity in the United States.”
A 2021 Duke University study estimated that banning abortion in the U.S. would lead to a 21 percent increase in pregnancy-related deaths overall and a 33 percent increase among Black women, “simply because staying pregnant is more dangerous than having an abortion.”
American women are 50 percent more likely to die in childbirth than their mothers were, according to a 2018 article in Harvard Health Publishing, and the risks are highest for Black women, who are three times more likely to die of pregnancy-related complications than white women, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.
My heart is heavy. I can’t get the oft-repeated old rally chant out of my head: “Pro-Life, your name’s a lie, you don’t care if women die.”
Why don’t they