Roe v. Wade

I want to live in a country where my children have equal access to education and opportunity regardless of their gender, their sexual proclivites, their race, their class, their religion (or lack thereof), or any other traditional or innovative marker of identity. I want to live in a country where women have strong reproductive rights with meaningful reproductive choices.

I believe that these two guarantees—education and reproductive control—will continue to make ours a stronger and more democratic nation. Not since the landmark Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion has the threat to reproductive rights in the United States felt so dramatic. If not in terms of literal limitations governing a woman’s options (of which there are many), than in terms of actual access to physicians and facilities willing and qualified to offer those options.

Regardless of outcomes, it is a rare individual who has not been directly or indirectly affected by unintended pregnancy. Let’s try not to presume that we know what is right or wrong or reasonable or feasible in the lives of others, and let’s simply try to be supportive of each other as human beings. And let’s try not to go backwards in the building of our freedoms and independence.