"ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL"

RECENT HEADLINE: THE SUPREME COURT IN A 5-4 DECISION OVERTURNED ROE V. WADE, THE LANDMARK RULING THAT ESTABLISHED THE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO ABORTION.

On this July 4th weekend when we celebrate Thomas Jefferson’s magnificent words that “All men are created equal,” I CHOOSE to speak.

I CHOOSE to do that as an 80-year-old woman whose reproductive organs are in retirement.

 I CHOOSE to reflect back 53 years, to when a 27-year-old woman adopted a beautiful baby girl because, after months and months of fertility treatments, she was unable to conceive. That woman was me. We named our adopted baby Alexandra and she is my fabulous daughter in every way, except DNA. 

I CHOOSE to honor Alex’s birth mother, as I have nearly every day since Alex came home to us. Her birth mother CHOSE to have her baby out of wedlock. She did not CHOOSE to have an abortion. I am thankful for her CHOICE.

I CHOOSE to add that two years later I became pregnant and gave birth to my son Chris. One baby was born in my womb, the other in my heart.

I CHOOSE to write in distress and anger for the women who will now be denied their “right to choose.” Historian and essayist Heather Cox Richardson wrote on June 24, “Today, thanks to three justices nominated by Trump, the Supreme Court stripped a constitutional right from the American people, a right we have enjoyed for almost 50 years, a right that is considered a fundamental human right in most liberal democracies, and a right they indicated they would protect because it was settled law.”

I CHOOSE to call out Ohio Senate candidate JD Vance who has announced he will not condone an abortion for rape or incest.  “Two wrongs don’t make a right,” he says. “Even though the circumstances of that child’s birth are SOMEHOW INCONVENIENT or a problem to society, we want women to have opportunities, we want women to have choices, but above all, we want women and young boys in the womb to have a right to life.” (Those are his exact words. No typo there.)

I CHOOSE to ask Mr. Vance what opportunities and choices a 14-year-old girl has when she’s been impregnated by her uncle? What opportunities and choices does a 45-year-old single career woman have when she’s been brutally raped, and the rapist’s seed took?

I CHOOSE to agree with Dr. Jill Biden’s assessment of the Supreme Court ruling: it is unjust and devastating.

A local male friend told me recently, “Abortion is not a federal issue, it’s a state issue. It should be decided by individual states.” I CHOOSE to disagree. Abortion is a woman’s issue that should be decided by her and her doctor, or her and her minister or parents, or her and the man who got her pregnant. Whose body are we talking about?

I read recently: “The Roe decision, which legalized abortion nationwide, led to a dramatic improvement in the lives and health of women. Before Roe, women experiencing unwanted or crisis pregnancies faced the perils and indignities of self-induced abortion, back-alley abortion, or forced childbirth. Today, Roe protects the right of women to make life choices in keeping with their conscience or religious beliefs, consistent with American tradition. And by relieving American women of the burden of unwanted pregnancies, Roe has permitted them to pursue economic opportunities on a more equal basis with men.”

The key words in the Roe v. Wade landmark decision are: THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE. It does not mean women like abortion. No one likes abortion. Roe simply gives  — well, gave — women the feeling that they too are created equal, that their bodies are their own.

On election day, I assure you:  I will CHOOSE carefully. 

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P.S. Lately I find myself listening to old pieces of music, like Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman" and Aretha Franklin’s “Respect.” But the song that really gets me is Keb’ Mo’ singing “Put a Woman in Charge.” Ladies, give it a listen.