Abortion access for inmates — educational article for awareness
Even before Roe v Wade was overturned, abortion was not easily accessable to those actively held in prisons. According to the Guttmacher institute, at the time when Roe was law, only half of state prisons allowed abortion in the first and second trimesters, and fourteen percent did not allow abortion for any cases. As one can imagine, with Roe gone, many states will refrain from delivering life saving care due to legal repercussions and concerns, which will leave our most vulnerable populations with the brunt of not only risking death but also being forced to carry a child to term in a prison. The reason why health is not protected even under life and death circumstances is because under abortion bans, every miscarriage has potential to be investigated, even when it was by natural causes. With abortion bans, doctors can face huge penalties and law suits, meaning they are less inclined to save the mothers life in FEAR that they will be investigated and arrested for simply providing LIFE SAVING CARE.
During these pregnancies, there will likely be so much trauma, not only for the mother but for the unborn fetus as well. When my mother was pregnant with me she was highly anxious and under so much pressure as a physician trying to save her patients, and it is my belief that this was a major factor in developing my mood disorder.
It was discovered that out of the mothers studied, the top fifteen percent of them, who dealt with the most anxiety, created double the risk of the child developing emotional or behavioral problems.
When we talk about abortion, it is important to recognize that there is a lot of controversy in the United States. This is simply because people have forgotten that separation of church and state is supposed to exist. The “pro-life’’ or pro-birth standpoint, as I call it, claims to care about the unborn, but when they are born, the performativeness is pretty easy to spot. If you will love a child before birth, you should care enough to support the birthed version as well.
If born in the prison system, the unborn clump of cells that will have a life ridden with pain and trauma, and it will likely not be cared for properly, because it wasn’t wanted in the first place. Additionally, it does not seem to me that a religion that teaches you how to treat your slaves should be dictating our laws in 2022. People who have the capacity for pregnancy need access to legal abortion because it is a human rights violation to take that away from your citizens. According to the UN, forced pregnancy is considered a crime against humanity, and we shouldn’t be dictating other people’s decisions when the consequences are so grave. We must keep fighting for human rights, despite what horrid laws are put in place. We cannot be a free country, till we are all free.
And if you are “pro-life” prove it. I want to see donations to foster care, I want to see donations to help provide necessary medical and mental health care for that child. I want to see you love those children you claim to love when they come out as gay. I want to see you love those children, when they are depressed and dealing with mental health struggles. I want you to love those children of immigrants and different religions and people who aren’t like you. Because that’s what your Bible says, love thy neighbor. Don’t fight against their basic rights. Jesus never said that. The Bible never said that.
