This viral HONY post is a powerful reminder that safe abortion must remain legal and accessible
Donald Trump and the GOP are committed to federally defunding Planned Parenthood and overturning Roe v. Wade, and the implications are terrifying — if they’re successful, women will lose access to affordable contraception and safe, legal abortions. Over the past week, a Humans of New York post has gone viral and it’s a powerful reminder that abortion must remain legal and accessible.
The Instagram post recounts the story of an anonymous woman in Buenos Aires, Argentina, who spoke candidly about the experience of terminating her own pregnancy.
Abortion is illegal in Argentina, unless the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, or the health of the pregnant woman is in danger.
The woman’s story is heartbreaking:
"I didn’t want to be a mother. I was eighteen. We weren’t in love. I had goals I wanted to accomplish. So I made the hardest decision of my life. It’s not legal here. So I researched it on the Internet. I did it myself. In my room. If things had gone wrong, I could have died. Seeing it come out of me was the worst moment of my life. And I couldn’t tell anyone. Not even my parents. So I carried the secret with me. I felt like this thing was always in my chest, but it was stuck there. All day I’d act normal. Then at night I’d go to my room and cry."
Abortion is health care. It's safe, legal — and must remain accessible. We won’t go back to back alleys & unsafe care. #MarchOfLies
— Planned Parenthood Action (@PPact) January 27, 2017
The post is further proof that criminalizing abortion doesn’t prevent it — it only means that women resort to dangerous tactics to terminate their pregnancies, and they’re denied counseling from trained professionals.
While Republicans work to restrict abortion rights, American women are increasingly fearful that our right to safe, legal abortion will become a thing of the past.
As the Humans of New York post shows, illegal abortions are more than just dangerous — they can be emotionally traumatic and leave a woman feeling isolated and stigmatized. If Roe v. Wade is overturned, millions of American women will end up in the same situation as the young woman in Argentina — and every woman deserves the basic right to a safe, legal abortion.
