Dear Editor,
Regarding the 5/15/22 article, ”Protestors in Shelby gather in support of abortion rights,” I strongly agree with them and want abortion rights kept safe and legal.
I’m very proud of the people in this article who are advocating for abortion rights because abortion care is essential medical care and always a needed service. I know, because I had my abortion in 1994, when anti-choice extremists were threatening and killing abortion providers, and my doctor was threatened the day of my procedure, but I still had it anyway.
I am so very concerned that the right to abortion may end. For over 50 years, Roe vs. Wade was the ”super legal precedent,” and law of the land, but it may soon be erased because of a conservative Supreme Court majority.
If federal protections for abortion cease, then some conservative states like Texas, Utah, and Kentucky, will enact automatic ”trigger bans,” to criminalize all abortions, while other states will codify abortion into their state law to keep it legal, such as California, New York, and D.C.
Even worse, some anti-choice legislators in Ohio have written copycat laws like the one in Texas, to allow the ”bounty-hunting,” of anyone who assists others in finding abortion services, and seeks to jail doctors who provide this needed care.
By criminalizing abortion care, this specifically targets the working poor, and communities of color, who can’t afford to travel out of state, while the wealthy can.
So please help and vote only for pro-choice candidates, and tell our legislators to stop policing the American bedroom, and to protect abortion rights.
Nancy Dollard
Uniontown, Ohio
