Often times, people forget to look at different sides of an issue. House Bill 69, also known as the Heartbeat Bill, makes abortion a criminal procedure if the embryo has a detectable heartbeat. While considering your position on this bill, think of how it will affect those around you.
*The following experiences are not mine, but potentially others' as they face the consequences of this law:
People are not adopting.
I had broken up with my boyfriend a month before I found out I was pregnant. I was working full time to support my mother, I never graduated high school, and barely making enough to feed myself. Before I was able to even consider my options, a doctor shoved me a pile of fliers about adoption. I figured someone would be happy to take care of my child if they couldn't have children of their own. 12,500 children in Ohio are living with foster families or in other out-of-home placements, such as group homes.
Look into where your taxes go when a woman experiences an unplanned pregnancy.
I dreaded Christmas dinner ever year. My father's family was stained with ignorance. Before we had gotten through the first course, my great uncle Donald drunkenly began to speak of the negro woman that lived beside him as a child. "Bitch had never heard of closing her legs," he snarled. "If they can't afford a child, they shouldn't be having sex. They want to end a pregnancy on our dollar and return to the sack. I'll be damned if my taxes fund a slut's abortion. Buy a condom." 1 in 5 Ohioans are on government help, majority being minors. Planned Parenthood has never funded an abortion.
The Heartbeat Bill does not offer exceptions for rape.
My school never provided a sexual education course. We were never taught about periods, puberty, or how babies were made. If we did consider to have sex, we were never taught about seeking birth control or condoms in order to protect ourselves. I had a teacher in seventh grade named Mrs. Lark. When a rambunctious boy made a joke about sex to our class, she explained that the only way to remain pure is to remain abstinent until marriage. I did so. When I was 20, I was walking home from a class. It had barely begun to get dark. As I was almost to my apartment, I felt a presence and heard an echoing set of footsteps behind me. I didn't have time to scream before I was being shoved into a dark crevice between two buildings. I thought about Mrs. Lark as my attacker stripped me of my innocence.
Consider consent in different lights. We can consent to end someone's life, why can't we consent to never begin it?
I had my first child as a junior in high school. She was met with open arms from my family, but I had never even considered having kids. When I told my mother I was considering abortion, she reminded me that it was no longer my body, but the child's, and I had no choice in the matter. Everything I did now must contribute to the well being of child's life. When my daughter began kindergarten, I was in a car accident. My mother thought about what she had said to me years ago as she held my daughter's hand. I needed a blood transfusion. My daughter was one match, and the other had refused. You must be 16 to consent to give blood in Ohio.
My brother was convicted of a murder he did not commit. I watched his wife break down in tears as they handcuffed the man she had chosen to marry. A year later, we hired a lawyer who found clear evidence to prove his innocence. My brother then died of a botched execution. The lawyer had missed the deadline for appeal. 53 people have been sentenced to death since 1976.
Most women do not know they are pregnant by the time the heartbeat is detectable.
I am black. So is my husband. We decided upon engagement that we did not wish to bring kids into this world. It was not a happy place for us, how could we shove others into this life? I had watched the video of my brother being shot by a cop go viral. I watched my sisters struggle to find a job after college. I watched my husband hold his nephew, crying as he found out his college declined him because their "diversity needs had been met." We had been married for three years, happily, with several fish and a puppy. After my husband had lost his job, we lost his health insurance. We were no longer able to afford birth control. Upon finding out I was pregnant we visited the doctor immediately, hoping to terminate the pregnancy. I wept as I discovered the beginning of the baby's heartbeat meant the beginning of his pain.
The Heartbeat Bill does not offer exceptions for incest.
My father began raping me when I was 6 years old. At the time, I had never known it was not normal. I never told anyone in fear of enraging him. Around the same time I realized it was not okay, I was no longer allowed to go to school. My father ran my household with anger, and we submitted in fear. My mother worked third shift. I never complained because that was eight hours of the day I knew she was safe. Every evening after a bath, I was sent to bed in button - up pajamas. I always tried to sleep. As the hallway light creeped across his face, I knew the shutting of my bedroom door meant my hour of horror had began. My mother found out when I was 16. As my mother's best friend helped us to pack the car, I watched tears fall across my mother's face, and I fell into her bruised arms as I thanked god for our safety. The first time I ever visited a doctor, I found out that I was with child.
Consider those in these situations. Women who are denied the choice to safely and legally terminate a pregnancy often find themselves in emotional, physical, and financial crisis. Making abortion against the law does not end abortion, but rather increases the deaths and injuries from illegal abortions and increases a criminal market.
If you feel strongly one way or another about the Heartbeat Bill, contact the office of Governor John R. Kasich. Or make your voice heard at (614) 466-3555.
Sources:
https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/legislation/legis...
http://www.redcrossblood.org/students/sixteen