“What do you think of when you hear the word ‘abortion’?”
This was the first question one of our supporters posed when speaking to a group of high schoolers about abortion. Each time, the first response was “politics.”
Abortion as a political issue is so pervasive, it has eclipsed the reality that abortion is health care – a safe and common medical procedure that 1 in 4 women in the U.S. will have before the age of 45.
Abortion is also an act of love – loving yourself enough to make a decision that’s best for you and your family despite the shame, stigma and judgment others might place upon you.
You loved yourself, so you had an abortion. You loved the child or children you already had, so you had an abortion. You loved the child who would not survive pregnancy or labor, so you had an abortion.
Abortion has always been and will continue to be part of the full spectrum of sexual and reproductive health care.
For nearly 50 years, Roe v. Wade has protected the legal right to an abortion. Yet legality alone is not and has never been enough.
Despite Roe, politicians have been able to create barriers and obstacles that treat people differently based on where they live and who they are. Young people, people struggling financially and people of color have to work much harder to make it past the barriers to get an abortion.
In 2021 alone, politicians introduced more than 600 abortion restrictions in state legislatures and more than 100 became law – a record number in any one year since Roe v. Wade. Even here in Maine, politicians opposed to abortion have tried to mandate medically unnecessary procedures, delays and misinformation.
With the legal protection of Roe likely ending this year, legislators are already gearing up to restrict and ban abortion even more than they already have.
Those hostile to abortion and dedicated to doing everything possible to shame, stigmatize and prevent people who need an abortion from getting one are a small, but vocal minority.
The truth is, most Mainers and most Americans support access to safe, legal abortion. If someone has decided to have an abortion, more than 8 in 10 respondents want the experience to be supportive and nonjudgmental, without added burdens or protesters, affordable and safe.
Eighty-five percent of respondents want abortion to be legal, too, but unfortunately it is increasingly clear that legality will not be part of the abortion experience for everyone in this country.
While the Supreme Court may not completely overturn the nearly 50-year-old precedent, anything other than a complete rejection of Mississippi’s abortion ban will be the end of Roe as we know it.
So now we face a hard truth: We cannot ensure that abortion remains legal in every state. But we can, and will, do everything possible so that abortion is affordable, accessible and supported. We will do all we can to make sure that people are respected, and treated with dignity without judgment.
This starts by simply having open, honest conversations about abortion, which is what we’ve been doing for the past seven years.
When we talk with people about their experiences with abortion and their thoughts and feelings, they don’t talk that much about the Supreme Court or politics. They talk about the people in their lives who have had abortions. They tell us about their own experiences with pregnancy and sex education – how they felt when they faced an unintended pregnancy; how they wanted to support a friend or family member, even if they disagreed with the decision, and what they want for their own children.
These conversations will continue no matter what the Supreme Court does.
We remain committed to creating communities where people are able to receive the abortion care they need when they need it, with support from loved ones and without shame and judgment.
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