NC anti-abortion law puts military servicewomen at risk; Mark Robinson would make it worse
One year ago today, our state passed Senate Bill 20, a dangerous bill that has restricted women’s choice and limited their access to health care. One year ago, I was among the many voices sounding the alarm about this bill’s dangerous consequences.
And one year later, I am pained to write that many of my fears have come true.
Serving in the North Carolina State Senate, I have seen firsthand how many of the people making these laws have no experience with the heartbreaking decisions that too many women face. And this issue is personal for me.
A night that haunts me
When I was 18 years old and serving in the Air Force, I narrowly escaped being raped by a higher-ranking officer. Even all these years later, the memory of that night still haunts me. Sexual assault in the military is all too common. Most women in the military who are raped don’t report it, and those who do usually face retaliation. You can’t tell anyone, so you have to get terribly creative about how you deal with a pregnancy that you didn’t ask for.
More: USA TODAY: North Carolina House approves bill tightening abortion limits
If I hadn’t managed to escape that day, and if I had gotten pregnant, I would have found myself facing a decision I never wanted to make — one that many of my fellow servicewomen did face. It’s a deeply personal decision, and I respect each of the decisions a woman might make in this situation.
The fact is this: SB20 took my fellow servicewomens’ decision away. It took away health care from women in the military: the very troops that so many of my colleagues in the General Assembly claim to support.
Mark Robinson wants to endanger us further
I first shared this story a year ago on the Senate floor, and one year later, I’m even more worried than I was then. SB20 has already put military women in a precarious position, but the Republican nominee for governor wants to endanger us further. He has made no secret of wanting to ban abortions completely with no exceptions. He says that women who have abortions are “guilty of murder” and “have blood on their hands.” The victims of sexual violence are his targets, and it’s despicable.
He doesn’t stop there. His proposed ban targets women facing the choice of having an abortion or risking their own health or ability to bear a child in the future. The tragic cases we’ve seen in Texas and Florida could become North Carolina’s stories if Mark Robinson has his way.
Josh Stein has stood up for women’s healthcare
We don’t have to let him.
This year, we have the chance to stop our state’s backwards slide. We can speak out about our experiences as women — and if you’re a man with a mother, a wife, sister or a daughter, we need your voices too. We can use our voices to remind the General Assembly of the stakes of their harmful laws. And in November, we can vote for people who will protect reproductive freedom.
While Mark Robinson has dedicated himself to running health care out of North Carolina, Josh Stein has stood up for women’s health care – and for veterans’ health care — every chance he’s gotten. We need him as our next governor, and we need to elect more legislators who will work with me in the General Assembly to give women their health care back.
This grim anniversary, let us commit ourselves to making SB20 the end of our attack on women’s rights and women’s health care — not the beginning.
Val Applewhite serves Cumberland County in North Carolina State Senate District 19. She is an Air Force veteran.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Fayetteville senator marks ‘grim anniversary’ for NC women’s healthcare
