Standing with Wendy...

People often ask me--or wonder, perhaps-- why I didn't have an abortion when I became pregnant with Elliot. Its a personal and private story that only a few in my close, personal circle really know about. Today's attack on Wendy Davis by Gov. Perry just made me feel all the more angry with the man who clearly has absolutely no understanding of the millions of women across this great state and I feel the need to finally share what my experience was like.

When I became pregnant with Elliot, it was clear very very early on that I would be raising him as a single mother. In fact, my short relationship with D had essentially ended a few weeks before I even discovered the pregnancy. D requested that I terminate the pregnancy. I considered his request, which was-- the LOGICAL thing to do in our situation. I agonized for hours and days and I thought about so many things. My lack of health insurance or financial means to raise him, the fact that I was in Austin and my family was across the state in El Paso. On one hand, if I aborted him I would have the social stigma of abortion over my head. On the other hand, I would be labeled an irresponsible woman who had a child out of wedlock and now required special medical assistance from the state. It was like staring down the barrel of a gun.  None of it made sense. But in the end, I knew I already loved him. I knew deep down that I wanted my child and I would make whatever sacrifices necessary to do so. I quit my job, I moved across the state and back in with my mom. I left my entire life that I knew in order to make a better life for my child. I was lucky. I had the unwavering support of my entire family.

Many women aren't so lucky. Many women aren't in a position to drop everything they've ever worked towards to raise a child. Many women are living in violent relationships or already have several children that they care for. Many women have been raped. The comments of Rick Perry-- to suggest that "it's just unfortunate that she hasn't learned from her own example" is marginalizing the lives, circumstances and experiences of ALL women. EVERYWHERE. I can tell you exactly how many women have had abortions without feeling panic, sadness and weighing out their choices very very carefully. The number is exactly 0. You know how I know? Because I've been there. My friend Kristyn, who very very much wanted and adored her unborn baby girl has been there.What Gov. Perry is essentially saying is that he knows more about what we go through as women than he does. That we are so dense and callous that we do not understand or recognize the consequences of our actions.

Today, I live in El Paso, Tx. I live in the very community that has the most at stake in this battle. The West Texas frontier would essentially lose the last access to abortion healthcare within a 10hr drive, if we were to stay in-state and 4hr drive if we travel to neighboring New Mexico. We already lost access to Planned Parenthood when the state defunded them in 2008. The county with one of the highest Texas Medicaid rates, a burden that the taxpayers of the state carry-- essentially took away all cost-effective methods of birth control to women so that they would never have to resort to an abortion in the first place and now they would like to restrict access to the last abortion clinic in all of West Texas.. Think about that for a minute. What the Governor has failed to recognize in his political ploy is that in closing abortion clinics in the state of Texas or restricting abortion to 20w gestation--he has pushed the women into the arms of Albuquerque, a 4hr drive from El Paso, that has absolutely zero restriction on abortion and legally allows it up to the day of birth. Here's where things get murky. Here's where things get gruesome. In his ploy to protect the Women of Texas, to save his own political agenda, he is actually promoting and encouraging the incredibly unsafe practices that he claims to want to stop. How is this protecting women? Why do women need protecting from our lawmakers? Are we not capable of protecting ourselves?

Though I did not choose to have an abortion, I am grateful I had the choice. I'm grateful to have Elliot in my life. And to tell Wendy Davis that she should have learned from her experiences, is to make light of the mere concept of CHOICE to begin with.  I will stand with Wendy. I will stand with the marginalized, uninsured, low-income women of my community so that every single one of them has access to equitable and accessible women's healthcare. Will you stand with Wendy too?