Planned Parenthood's Dawn Laguens on Why the Fight for Abortion Rights Is Personal
From the moment then-candidate Donald Trump said that women would deserve “some form of punishment” if abortion were to become illegal, we have been preparing for dire threats to the constitutional right to abortion.
On Wednesday, Justice Anthony Kennedy—the deciding vote on the Supreme Court when it came to protecting the core of the constitutional right to abortion—announced his retirement, creating a vacant seat that President Trump has promised to fill with an anti-abortion justice who will overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court case that established the right to abortion.
Because he has attacked access to reproductive health care at every opportunity, we believe he’ll make good on that threat.
The right of women to make their own decisions about their bodies and their futures will be determined by who fills Justice Kennedy’s seat. So now the balance of the most powerful court is a tug of war between Trump and the 70 percent of Americans who support safe legal abortion.
Of course, this isn’t the first time we have had to fight to save our access to reproductive health.
When Trump promised to repeal the Affordable Care Act and block patients from coming to Planned Parenthood, people from across the country flooded Twitter, the U.S. Capitol, town halls, and congressional inboxes. And we stopped him.
Any justice Trump nominates must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, so Planned Parenthood and our 11 million supporters will do everything we can to make sure that the Senate only confirms justices who explicitly state they will uphold Roe v. Wade and women’s rights to safe, legal abortion.
Because what happens on the Supreme Court could alter the course of women’s lives for generations.
The stakes are high. At least 20 states would be at high risk of banning abortion outright if Roe is overturned, either because of laws already in place or because they have legislatures and governors so hostile to women’s health that they will jump at the chance to take away our rights. Four of those states already have laws in place that would ban abortion as soon as the court allows.
One of them is my home state of Louisiana, where in 1983, as a freshman at LSU, I became pregnant. I didn’t want to be. Like so many people who find themselves in the same predicament, I was near broke and only beginning to figure out who I was and what I wanted to do with my life. But I knew, without a doubt, that I was not ready to be a mother. I borrowed money and had an abortion at the health center in town.
If it had been illegal in Louisiana, I’m certain I would have found a way to get an abortion in another state. Many women don’t have that option. They have children to feed, bills to pay and jobs that don’t give paid time off. Others don’t have insurance or a car or the savings to pay for their travel and care. Even now, when Roe is the law of the land, too many women must contend with extreme barriers to care, because Louisiana state politicians have spent years chipping away at the constitutional right to abortion and made it as difficult and as burdensome as possible.
Today, I am the proud mother of triplet teenage daughters, daughters I am sure I would not have without that abortion in 1983. When I feel worn out by the news and the work ahead, I think of them. And I think of the 1 in 5 women who come to Planned Parenthood, and how we have changed their lives by helping them to own their own bodies through access to birth control, education, cancer screenings, STI testing and treatment, and abortion.
So much has changed since 1973. Half of American families today have a female breadwinner. We work at every level in every industry. We are CEOs and computer scientists and increasingly members of Congress. Women are more than half of college students. More women are running for office this year than ever before.
When my daughters were growing up, I told them they could be anything they wanted to be. And I believed that. I still believe it.
But I also know, from decades of fighting for women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, voting rights and racial justice, that the world doesn’t become more fair and just on its own.
Those in power don’t simply give us our rights. We have to demand them, and protect them. And sometimes, fight to get them back.
Dawn Laguens is the Executive Vice President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America
Related Stories:
How Justice Anthony Kennedy's Retirement From the Supreme Court Could Erode Women's Rights
A Reminder That We Won't Need a Full Repeal of Roe v. Wade for Abortion to Be Restricted
