This was originally written as testimony to RI state legislature to help pass the Reproductive Health Care Act in RI in 2019l codifying RI’s citizens right to abortion care. I’m finally (in 2023) able to claim the story as my own and I’ve edited it a little too for better flow. Original as submitted is here and in state house logs.
Date: January 28, 2019
I support The Reproductive Health Care Act because there was once a fourteen year old girl, who after being taken to an uninhabited island in Narragansett Bay, was raped by a man twice her age. She thought he was a friend.
That girl told no one, and threw herself against a sharp cornered table, over and over for days, until bruises appeared on her abdomen and she felt sick. She didn’t want to be pregnant. She carried on.
Five years later, at nineteen, she decided it was time she could have sex, and chose a college classmate with whom she was in love. They got tested for AIDS, then got birth control, and after some time of dating, she became pregnant. This girl and her partner were a birth control ‘fail rate.’ After weeks of careful consideration, prayer, and talking with family members and doctors, she decided terminating the pregnancy was best. Her boyfriend agreed. He was cheating. It was a difficult decision, and one of relief. The clinic was clean, and she was safe. She graduated summa cum laude. She carried on.
Twenty years later, and this woman was married to a good man, and they decided it might be nice to have children. She had a miscarriage around 8 weeks pregnant. “Not meant to be. Not a viable embryo,” the doctor said. But she wondered: had she eaten the wrong thing, or done the wrong thing before she knew? Maybe “lysteria” had hurt the maybe-baby? Who would know? Not even the doctors. No doctor could pinpoint the actual date of conception. She carried on.
This woman at 40, tried again, and had a wonderful baby, then another miscarriage with a D&E procedure. Then she had another wonderful baby. And that woman is nothing special — just a regular Rhode Islander— who lives privately, keeping her medical business to herself.
That is, until now. Because this woman sees a threat ahead. The threat that someone may make rules so that “maybe-babies” can ruin real women’s lives, make criminals of doctors, thieve girls’ privacy, and degrade our daughters’ futures.
The threat that the idea that ‘maybe-hood’ would be calculated to be more important than person-hood. That the mystery, messiness, and miracle of reproduction that occurs within a woman’s body, would be used to make her body her government’s domain.
At one time, her bodily autonomy and privacy was codified, but it is now at risk. So this woman wants her state to acknowledge the threat to her personhood: and to protect the status quo of Roe v Wade via RHCA. To take that stand.
This woman also notices that the threat contains— at its core — legal precedent so ‘maybe-hood’ can be defined and stewarded by government. Making rules that threaten that if a woman does something imperfect and miscarries, she could become accused of a crime.
This woman sees that the threat to Roe v. Wade could take away her access to safe and private medical care, all at once. Maybe this is because some don’t believe in smart, thoughtful women like her. Or trust her. Or trust doctors. Or trust nature. Maybe some, also don’t trust RI, a place founded for protection of individual freedoms.
With this threat, maybe a woman a with late-carry health issue would have to prove her need and innocence, and apply for the right to get a D&E to prevent her sepsis and death? Maybe she would have trouble finding a doctor to help her if she were raped? Maybe she would have to go overseas or across state lines to get medical care? Maybe she should have lots of extra money just because she’s a woman… ? But what if she doesn’t?
Or maybe that woman— this woman— and thousands of other regular women, can just throw themselves against tables if they are afraid or can’t find a doctor. Or worse. Please stand for my personhood, please stand for liberty, please stand for privacy. Please pass RCHA this session.
Thank you for reading this.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth
A South Kingstown Resident
A South Kingstown Resident