Dear George,
After you became President Mr. Washington - I understand the War of Independence left the original 13 Colonies in a somewhat wobbly social condition., but oh George - nothing in your wildest dreams would prepare you for how human-reproduction in the Republic you struggled to form has evolved since...
After the Roe vs Wade ruling [1973] prior to every election cycle as predictable as bird migration specific segments of voters take to the streets - then we're back to ABORTION...
But in 2022, we're seeing thousands of women marching in the streets again because according to social-allegations a clerk in the Supreme Court office of Justice Sotomayor has leaked a draft copy of how the majority of the court [heavily weighted on the conservative side] may rule in June on a contentious Mississippi abortion legislation case.
I feel rather qualified to "enter-the-Lion's-Den" on this storm. Like the Pilgrams who landed on Plymouth Rock as some of the 'first' to colonize in the launch years of America - I was in junior high school when the launch of this controversy exploded [literally] as I reached puberty then carried into my early adulthood. [*Unlike America, the rest of the globe [that uses the metric system and prints difficult to counterfeit currency] has moved on.]
As a young adult two major contradictions swirled around abortion covered by an emerging TV media that scrambled to keep up with each day's baffling event. At 13 I remember watching the 6o'clock news in horror as people picketed with signs printed with [among other expressions] RESPECT LIFE also using those signs as clubs to attack clinic staff. Frenzy 'against' abortion was so intense people either participated in -or- cheered when clinics were fire bombed ending the 'lives' of nurses, doctors and staff inside. The flipside to the 60s abortion madness was a subgroup [organized by mostly churches] of people who opposed an emerging medical solution to abortion---the PILL. Since new medical research offered a pregnancy prevention alternative, one would expect that to be embraced...Nope.
Caught in the middle of this big cultural-religious-ethical quandary [as usual] sits the vast majority of citizens. Millions of couples and women and men...but mostly women [because typically the male of our species is not like the seahorse] felt damned either way. Women in the 60s and the 70s who opted for the pill and freedom from the worry of an unwanted pregnancy were considered immoral - another contradiction - another social double standard. [Have we moved on from that?]
However, in 2022 why is a woman's choice only between abortion or carrying an unplanned pregnancy to term? Why isn't our [third] choice to seek as much information as possible about 'avoiding' a pregnancy dilemma in the first place?
*The estimated total cost to raise one [healthy] child from birth to age 18 is between $200,000 to $250,000.
*Average cost of birth control for 18 years [using the patch] is about $10,800.
*If you're certain you do not want any children at all -or- you have reached your 2 to 3 child limit then a tubal ligation [with or without insurance] is between $1,600 to $7,000.
Our federal government does support reproductive health [Planned Parenthood gets most of the press] and has mandated insurance companies [including Medicaid] to cover all forms of contraceptives making many co-pays $0 to $50 depending on the women's birth control selection...Insurance carriers eagerly embraced this directive because even an uncomplicated pregnancy with a vaginal delivery can cost an average of $2,000 for nine months of prenatal care then delivery [nursing, doctor, medication] and hospital stay $4,000 to $37,000...[Triple that for complications or C-Section deliveries.]
·
Depo-Provera
– around $30 to $75
·
Implantable
Rod – around $400 to $800
·
Patch
(Evra patch) – around $15 to $50
·
Intrauterine
Device (IUD) – around $500 to $1,000
·
Vaginal
ring – around $15 to $80
Schoolboards and teachers' unions across the country are pushing for classroom discussions on gay, lesbian and transgender issues targeting children still learning to color inside the lines - but not pushing for middle school classroom information on BIRTH-CONTROL or the true emotional impact of what a teen pregnancy can mean...Obviously we're 'not' having those discussions, because if we were then we wouldn't be presented with 'only' a Pro-Choice or Right-To-Life conflict.
The alternate direction for an unplanned/unwanted pregnancy brought to term is ADOPTION private or foster care. Pregnant women [of all ages] can surrender their newborn via an arranged adoption handled by a law firm [at no cost to them] or in the hospital or anonymously at designated community firehalls. Private adoptions are immediate. Children who are State Wards in foster care typically wait one to two years to be adopted, most wait five years for a permanent home.
Both abortion [medical or surgical] and a full-term pregnancy carry health risks short and long term especially for girls under the age of 15 and women with underlying heath issues like weight, diabetes, high blood pressure, etc... So let's have some logical dialogue about contraception and NOT include women of color or the disadvantaged because everyone can access county, state and federal support programs.
And while we're discussing CHOICE...Perhaps abortion is 'not' specifically written into our Constitution - but the FREEDOM of CHOICE 'IS'...So--maybe the U.S. Supreme Court could remember 'that' when they pen their final RULING -and- follow in the footsteps of former Justices like Sandra Day O'Connor...
Sherrie Todd-Beshore is an award-winning mystery-suspense novelist and former journalist...
*Life in small town Montana is not as quiet
as you might think.
