My sister

I’m beyond devastated at the news today. It isn’t so much that I’m thinking I’ll get pregnant at this stage and not want the baby. My sister got pregnant at 42 and no one thought she had anything to worry about. She wanted that baby so much. But the pregnancy literally killed her. She died 4 days after giving birth to her second son. He’s a precious ray of light and I love him. But here’s the problem.

If I do get pregnant, I will want that baby. But the pregnancy could kill me. I’m not in a high risk group though. No doctor will say this. But she was my identical twin sister. I lost the person who was closest to me in the whole world. I’m not saying she should have had an abortion. It was her choice. But I should have that choice too. If a pregnancy at 42 killed my sister, a pregnancy at 50 could kill me too.

And it isn’t only about my life. I do have another sister, and I don’t want her forced to carry a baby to term when she isn’t ready to have children. It should be exactly her choice and her husband’s whether they want to do so and not someone else’s. Pregnancy is dangerous. It’s extremely risky even in healthy women. Taking this and saying the baby’s life is worth more than the mother’s says women are baby machines and nothing else. That’s the wrong take. We’re valuable.

Keep in mind that the vast majority of abortions happen before the fetus has a heart, which is not life. To be alive, you need a brain. That develops at a much later stage during the pregnancy. To be sentient, you need a brain. Even an adult who is brain dead is not considered alive, even with a functioning heart. This ruling is a travesty and it disgusts me. It treats women like we’re not important and don’t contribute to society.

I know it won’t stop there. These science denyers even think a single called organism is enough to protect and they’ll ban birth control among other things. This is not what the supposed “greatest country in the world” should be doing. Forced birth puts burdens on young women and children who could not only die, but may not have the means to support a family. These people who think life is supposedly sacred don’t care about women or girls. They don’t care that some of these women and girls will end up on public assistance if they’re lucky enough not to fall through the cracks like I did. Even worse, these idiots keep cutting funding for the programs to help these young women and children care for their babies. They vote against increasing aid. They’re hypocrites of the worst kind.

Please vote pro-choice. If this doesn’t scare you, it should. Even if you believe a clump of cells is sacred, you have to recognize the sacredness of the mother’s life too. It isn’t moral to shove one’s religious beliefs down other’s throats. If you are saying abortion is murder, you are still complicit if the mother dies then. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t say the clump of cells is more valuable than a living, breathing human being.

Our lives are at stake here. Vote. Vote at every level. And don’t let them tell you that you are less worthy. You are very worthy. Women are pillars of society. Don’t forget that.