Myrtle Beach women speak up about their reproductive rights

Deidre Griffin is one of the many women who have used her right to have an abortion

The first time she got pregnant, she was still in school.

“I was younger, I was in school, there was no way that I could, I mean, there’s a way to do it, but it’s just much harder when you have a child to finish school so it’s hard to achieve goals when you have another person to take care of other than yourself,” Griffin said.

The second time she got pregnant, it also did not go as she had planned. Griffin had gone to the hospital two or three times during her pregnancy when she was having trouble sleeping, eating, and drinking. She said she was throwing up while she was in the emergency room and yet each time they sent her home only with fluids. It wasn’t until Griffin went to her OB/GYN before she found out she had had a stroke caused by pre-eclampsia and was rushed to the hospital for emergency delivery.

The stroke she suffered caused her to be unable to take hormonal birth control and when she asked for her tubes to be tied, her doctor refused.

“He said I was young and that I may get married and my husband may want children and I can’t take hormonal birth control because of the stroke,” She said.

At a rally for reproductive rights on Wednesday night, Tricia Mullhouser and Meredith Noel both shared their stories with abortion.

Mullhouser, a resident from Pawley’s Island, said she rallies for her sister.

“My sister actually the week before Roe v. Wade was turned over she also had to have an abortion because Medical University of South Carolina didn’t catch the abnormalities unfortunately she was five months pregnant,” Mullhouser said.

She said she advocates not only for her sister but for all people who need to have an abortion, and that everyone needs to have a choice.

Meredith Noel shared her personal story for the first time at the rally.

“The first time I was raped was when I was five, in a church,” Noel said.

She said going up on stage to share was “anxiety inducing” but relieving at the same time. Noel said she was not planning on telling her story today or ever but she thought others might need to hear it.

“I don’t feel like its something that I should keep to myself anymore its my experience its my trauma but there’s so many other people that have theirs, they need to know they’re not alone,” Noel said.