John, the right to have an abortion is deeply personal to me.
Today is the 51st anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that established the constitutional right to an abortion. In 2022, the Supreme Court made the reckless decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade with its Dobbs decision, threatening reproductive and abortion care for women across the country and creating tremendous pain for so many. It’s something that hit home for me and my wife.
Just before the Dobbs decision, my wife Kerry and I were celebrating our early pregnancy — one that was unplanned and unexpected but entirely welcome. We spent weeks discussing our excitement and anxieties about becoming new parents responsible for taking care of a new, beautiful life.
Like many expecting parents, we thought about the possibility of medical complications and the severe health risks associated with pregnancy. In a cruel twist of fate, our doctors told us the terrible news that our pregnancy was a part of the tragic percentage of times when things go wrong on the very same day the Dobbs decision came down.
It felt like the world was playing a horrible joke on us.
After visiting with our doctors, we considered our circumstances and made the decision to have an abortion. After a tangled web of calls with medical providers, we were finally able to get an appointment on a Friday two weeks later — a delay that could cause severe medical complications for Kerry, but there was already an influx of people traveling to Colorado seeking the reproductive health care they couldn’t get in their home states. We had to make a decision fast. So, we scheduled the appointment.
As we arrived at the clinic, we noticed the parking lot was full of license plates from other states, with people seeking medical care that was now banned or restricted in their home states. We were also greeted by protesters shaming and mocking us for our decision. They packed up when the sun got too hot and inconvenient for them.
Waiting quietly, we know every other woman and couple in the clinic had their personal story and reason for being there — a story that was unique and unknowable to us but one that was the right choice for them. Many of the women there were struggling with figuring out where they could stay that evening and if they could even afford their flight back home.
We’ve lived in a post-Roe world for a year and a half now, and we're still seeing the consequences reverberate across our country. We’ve heard the nightmarish stories from women desperately seeking care, and we continue to see the equally draconian restrictions implemented, from near-total abortion bans to criminalizing abortion care providers.
The criminalization of women and doctors for seeking and providing medical care is shameful, dangerous, and must be ended.
My wife and I are privileged to live in a state that believes in personal freedom and protects the rights of women to make decisions regarding their own lives, and we’re fortunate that we had the means to navigate the system. But what about other women who aren’t as privileged as us or who live in a state seeking to criminalize women for exercising their freedom to make their own healthcare decisions?
We continue our fight to make sure Colorado continues to lead so that the rest of the country can see us as a beacon of freedom for folks to make their own reproductive care and abortion choices.
Every story matters, and everyone should be afforded the same rights and protections, no matter where they live.
Thank you,
Shad Murib
