Editor’s note: Melinda Moulton is the CEO of Main Street Landing, serves on the Board of Directors of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, and is president of the Planned Parenthood Vermont Action Fund.
[O]n Jan. 22, I had the opportunity to witness history in Montpelier at the Statehouse. The Vermont House of Representatives introduced bill H.57, “An Act Relating to Preserving the Right to Abortion,” and if passed, it will secure abortion rights in Vermont law.
Vermont currently has no law explicitly protecting abortion rights. Right now, abortion access in Vermont is legal because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. H.57 would put language on the books to affirm that abortion is legal in Vermont. This is a move to protect the rights we already have in Vermont, not change them.
Let’s go back in time 50 years ago when women did not have a legal right to choose their reproductive fate. In high school, if a girl became pregnant, she would be expelled. We did not have sex education or access to contraception in those days, but our desire for sexual exploration was as normal then as it is today for high school students.
These girls were often top students, involved in school government and high achievers on their sport teams – they were leaders. Most had fabulous futures ahead of them. The school expelled these girls for being pregnant, yet the boy involved was allowed to remain in school and graduate. The lives of these girls were changed forever.
I know women who risked their health and their lives because abortion was illegal. There was a time when pregnant women with financial means would pay to give birth in secret and then give their babies away without anyone ever knowing to avoid being shamed. Even worse, there were women who attempted to abort unplanned pregnancies by themselves. Think about the fear that would drive a woman to do that. We cannot go back.
What possibly could lurk in the minds of those who would want to deny a woman the right to choose their own destiny? A person’s ability to access safe and legal abortion when they need it is a critical component of their health and dignity as well as independence, freedom and equality. Many of the gains women have made in obtaining education, pursuing careers, moving closer to pay equity, and in having greater determination over the timing and spacing of their children are the direct result of increased access to birth control and abortion.
We cannot risk the threats to abortion access that we’re anticipating at the Supreme Court level. If the court chips away at abortion rights, decisions about access to abortion will revert to the states. I applaud Vermont’s House leadership for taking this historic and common-sense action, and we must pass H.57 to ensure that reproductive rights are protected in Vermont. We owe this to our daughters and granddaughters to avoid repeating the past.
