As the presidential inauguration of Donald Trump inches closer, it becomes glaringly obvious by the day just how bitterly divided the country is. While there are millions of Americans who are eagerly looking forward to a new era in government, there are millions of others who find themselves fearful of what changes that may truly bring — and what rights they may stand to lose in the process.
Robin Colleen is one of the many who remain fearful. Just one day after House Speaker Paul Ryan announced the GOP’s plans to defund Planned Parenthood, she decided she couldn’t stay silent about the impacts something like that would have on women across the nation. Women just like her.
So she took to her Facebook page and began to share a heart-breaking story about the importance of choice.
In her post, Robin explained that after years of trying to have a baby — enduring two rounds of IVF treatments, as well as multiple frozen embryo transfers — she finally became pregnant. But several months into her pregnancy, Robin and her husband were given devastating news by their doctor: Their baby, whom they had already named Grace, carried a disease that had a 100% probability of causing her to either be stillborn, or die shortly after birth. Continuing with the pregnancy would also cause Robin’s own risk to increase — by seven times.
And so, her choice became heartbreakingly clear.
She continued:
“Please know that our decision to terminate the pregnancy at 21 weeks, 5 days (nearly 6 months pregnant) was one that we made out of love, and was terribly difficult. We wanted Grace to experience no pain or suffering, and this was the least painful thing we could do for her. We have taken the physical and emotional suffering on ourselves instead of allowing her to feel it.”
As if that weren’t enough, Robin went on to explain just how painfully brutal the process of having an abortion in the state of Missouri truly was. She had to wait 72 hours after signing the papers to have an abortion. She and her husband had to sign saying they heard the baby’s heartbeat and had seen an ultrasound and were given a packet of documents that explained how they were pretty much killing their baby. The state offers no exceptions in procedure for fetal anomalies or high-risk pregnancies for the mother. Robin wrote that she was incredibly lucky her employer’s insurance even agreed to cover the procedure in-state and she was able to receive excellent medical treatment.
“Our privilege helped us immensely, and it still has been the hardest experience of my life,” she continued. “I will never be the same. I’m sharing this so you know who you’re affecting if you defund Planned Parenthood, or want abortion outlawed, or not allowed in late term (which mine was — we did it literally one day before we couldn’t in the state of Missouri any longer). This isn’t an issue I’m passionate about, I AM the issue. Jim IS the issue. I can’t imagine a person getting to 22 weeks of pregnancy and deciding to terminate for convenience. This needs to be available for people like us — people that very much want their child, but learn their child will die a horrible, suffering death if they continue to carry her. That their own health will suffer.”
The entire post is nothing short of heart-wrenching, and highlights just one of the many important reasons why defunding Planned Parenthood would have an enormous impact on the nearly five million American women who visit a center each year — to receive education, outreach, and medical services.
Because while Planned Parenthood does remain the largest abortion provider in the United States, the truth is, terminations only account for 3% of Planned Parenthood’s medical services per the most recent data. Meanwhile, 45% of their services provide STD testing and treatment (that’s over 4 million people), and another 31% account for contraception (about 2.9 million people). Another 7% was allocated to cancer screening and prevention.
These numbers are important and should not be ignored. Defunding Planned Parenthood would not only affect the women who are in need of an abortion, but also take away the ability of millions of Americans who use these centers to receive important medical services and education every single day.
Given its incredible impact, it’s perhaps no surprise that private donations to Planned Parenthood have increased by more than 300,000 in the six weeks following the U.S. elections — along with a 900% rise in women requesting long-term birth control like IUDs, in the event the Affordable Care Act is repealed.
But no matter what side of the issue you’re on personally when it comes to reproductive rights, to me, this line of Robin’s post sums it all up perfectly:
“If you believe you wouldn’t make this choice if you were in our shoes, please be grateful you likely haven’t had to, and know that I’ve surprised myself many times over in this entire journey at what I’d do once I was in a position I never though I’d be in. If you wouldn’t do it, that is between you, your partner, your medical professionals and your higher power/God, if you believe in one. I don’t believe the government (aka other people) should have a say in this.”
I couldn’t agree more.