Nikki Lee Health

I came of age in the golden era for women, after Roe vs. Wade was passed, and before herpes and HIV. Reliable birth control was readily available; I experimented and indulged without fear of death or disease in a way that my culture had previously permitted only to men. No one was hurt during the time of sowing my wild oats and I learned that I valued relationship more than indulging lightening flashes of sudden lust.

My life has included 3 marriages, 1 long-term relationship, and 2 children. I have walked in freedom, building a career that challenges and nourishes me and that contributes to the good of the world. I have managed my reproductive life in a such way that I  look back and feel proud of my choices. I did the best I could at the time; I have no regrets.  I have raised two wonderful daughters, and wish for them the same freedom and access to healthcare that I enjoyed.

Except the world has changed now for women. While corporations swell with power and profit, their paid legislators have targeted a woman’s right to choose, to enjoy equal protection under the law, and to have her life valued. This has culminated in the House of Representatives voting to defund Planned Parenthood, the organization that makes good healthcare affordable and available to young women just getting started in life, and to women of all ages who lack sufficient funds.

Sex is a universal source of pleasure. People are driven to have sex despite barriers and sanctions posed by work, status, religion, marital status, or ethics. Sex can be made safe with birth control so everybody can have fun. Sometimes birth control doesn’t work, sometimes relationships end;  sometimes a terrible defect in the growing baby is incompatible with life, sometimes women are raped, and sometimes people make mistakes. The impact of these situations is on the people involved. As a result of today’s advances in health, a pregnancy can be ended early and safely, without a woman having to be murdered, or a baby growing up knowing in its very cells that it is a burden or unwanted.

Choice is a matter between a woman and her provider, not her legislator. The legislator will not bear the consequences of denying care to a woman, whereas her life will be irrevocably altered.

There is a natural precedent for chosen abortion; the medical term is spontaneous abortion, as opposed to a  therapeutic one. Many mammals will miscarry or reabsorb their gestating young if the external environment is unfavorable; humans are no different. When the environment is unfavorable, if the woman is lacks resources, or has been raped, or is scared, or has already too many children, or if she knows she lacks the resources to raise a baby, she will act to preserve the life that she can manage. No one can understand that situation save the one who is in it.

Chosen abortion has been part of human history since the beginning of time.The old-time song, Pretty Polly tells the old story of the young woman taken for a ride in the country, and murdered by her Willie, who “stabbed her through the heart” and “into the grave, pretty Polly did go.” in the US today, a man who makes a woman pregnant sometimes kills her; making murder a leading cause of death in pregnancy. If Republicans have their way, the law will trap a woman who becomes pregnant and deny her a safe choice.If she can’t make a legal and safe choice, she will make an unsafe one out of desperation; illegal, unsafe abortion is a leading cause of death of women worldwide.

There is no way for beliefs to be reconciled; the simplest solution is to trust a woman’s ability to make a decision. She will do as well as any other human at making the right choice. I do not judge women for ending or for keeping an unwanted pregnancy; her choices are none of my business. I want the same respect for all women.