My story may seem exceptional. I assure you I am one of millions of women who live with reproductive trauma and relive it every day since Roe v. Wade was overturned.
Between 2008 and 2013 I was trying to start a family and suffered five miscarriages in the process. Four required medical intervention. Two were assisted by mifepristone, known as the abortion pill, which has since been banned in 18 states and limited in an additional 10 states. Two required dilation and curettage, the same surgical procedure as an abortion.
My first miscarriage landed me in the emergency room. My husband and I both feared for my life, but under Roe and in a state with legal protections for women’s healthcare, my doctors did not hesitate to provide me the care I needed. I was spared any suspicion of criminality during the most terrifying day of my life. A silver lining is that, after a touch-and-go first trimester I was able to carry one child, now a teenager, to term. My story is not unique, but my access to care is not within the grasp of a growing number of American women.
I have a mosaic version of a relatively rare disorder called Turner’s syndrome. This random chromosomal disorder is caused by mutations during cell division. It affects about one in 2000 females. I have no discernible physical markers of this syndrome, so was diagnosed only after three miscarriages with difficult medical interventions. I was able to identify an expert in Turner’s who ordered a thorough panel of medical tests to rule out potentially fatal conditions associated with the disorder. She told me that I had a 90% chance of miscarriage with future pregnancies and she would have said 100% if not for the fact that I had a child. I sought IVF, but was not a candidate.
Miscarriage is devastating, no matter how it happens. We are led to believe that when a pregnancy is not viable a woman’s body knows what to do and will naturally miscarry in a relatively painless and harmless way. This could not have been further from the truth for me and is not the reality for millions of other women. Medical interventions were required to keep me safe and preserve any chance, however slim, I had for a future child. These are the very same interventions to which access is eroding at a pace I never imagined before Dobbs.
I am pro-choice, but cannot claim to be an activist for abortion rights. A few years ago I would have said abortion should not be a political consideration at all. Even if millions with reproductive trauma may wish it were not a political issue, it is both a local one and a national one. This week Michelle Obama called on women and the men who love us to use our voices. She reminded us that abortion rights are tied to much broader issues of women’s health and safety. She inspired me to share my story rather than continue to let my blood boil with every misogynistic speech meant to embolden men to strip women of our right to live a safe and humane existence.
You do not need to be an activist or even pro-choice to vote for politicians up and down the ticket who would protect the ability of millions like me to survive the trauma of miscarriage and build a family.