“I Almost Died Trying to Get an Abortion. I'm Terrified My Students Could Face a Similar Fate,” a powerful op-ed in CNN written by Claudia Dreifus, journalist and Sustainability Management Lecturer, comes in response to the Supreme Court hearing arguments in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case, which considers a 2018 law banning most abortions after 15 weeks. Dreifus notes that if the justices rule in favor of the state of Mississippi, “they effectively will be nullifying the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision—significantly limiting women's reproductive rights.”
Dreifus says the case is particularly threatening because the willingness of the court to even hear a case with precedent in a previously decided law is significant. She also notes that it is especially alarming as a woman who remembers life before the Roe v. Wade decision. “Before Roe, it was females who paid the biggest price for sexual expression,” Dreifus writes. She goes on to describe the experiences of multiple friends who had “terrifying” medical experiences with illegal abortions. “To be of childbearing age in the 1960s, as my friends and I were, meant knowing that our bodies and our futures didn't belong to us.”
At age 19, when Dreifus herself had an unplanned pregnancy, she was “saved” by connecting to an underground network that led her to a physician named Dr. Robert Spencer, who performed safe abortions in the belief that a woman should have the right to choose. Dreifus asserts, “If not for his care, my life would have gone in an altogether different direction. I wouldn't today be a writer and a professor.”
Dreifus then describes the experience of her current students who have control over their bodies and, consequently, the direction of their futures. Dreifus has found that these students can barely comprehend a world in which Roe is overturned. However, in light of the Supreme Court’s recent decisions, Dreifus now worries about the “complacent attitudes” of many Americans. While she maintains that one of the justices may surprise us and uphold Roe, she reminds the public that we need to actively fight to uphold the right for women to choose.
“Whether or not Roe survives, the lesson we must all learn is that preserving our rights—be they in speech, citizenship, privacy or reproduction—requires constant vigilance.”
Read Dreifus’ full op-ed, “I almost died trying to get an abortion. I'm terrified my students could face a similar fate" on CNN.com.
