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Dear John,
One of my least favorite things to do is to talk about being a survivor. No matter how much time and distance I put between myself and that moment in my life, it remains a scar that is sensitive to the touch.
I remember the moment I stopped fighting and accepted what was happening. I felt so helpless. I made a bargain with the universe to try to gain back some form of control: let me live. If I got my way with the bargain, I could survive anything else. I lived and so I had to survive.
When I heard about the Supreme Court's draft opinion on Roe v Wade, my thoughts and emotions came rushing back—not to my abortion that I had when I was 18, but to the moment I was helplessly becoming a victim of sexual assault, and bargaining with the universe to please let me live.
This draft opinion isn't just about abortion rights. It's about our right to choose—Our right to choose whom we love. Our right to choose whom we make love to. Our right to choose when or if we want to have sex. Our right to choose how we identify. Our right to choose when or if we want to bear children. Our right to choose and participate within our own healthcare. Our right to choose what is best for our own bodies and our own lives.
This is a very slippery, downhill slope SCOTUS has steered us down. It fills me with unbelievable rage that more people will have to go through the same sense of helplessness and pain I had to experience because of this sickening power flex for control.
I hope you understand how deeply I mean it when I say over my dead body.
We cannot allow this to happen. Not in Pennsylvania, not in Texas, not anywhere in the country. We cannot go back.
Are you with me?
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