by Erin McKelle

Just when you thought that reproductive rights couldn’t be attacked any more, they have. The recent abortion restrictions introduced

via ProgressOhio

in Ohio and Texas are taking away women’s access to necessary reproductive rights that enable them to make their own choices about their bodies and healthcare. We often hear about how abortion (and lack of access to it) will affect adult women in their 20’s, 30’s and 40’s, but what about young women? How do these new restrictions affect us, and what kinds of challenges are we facing as a result?

The new abortion laws in Texas:

In Ohio, lawmakers have:

For young women, these provisions could be devastating. In Texas, which is the second largest state in land area,  those seeking abortion will need to travel hours to receive care—something that many young women can’t do on their own.  This is on top of Texas’s 24 hour waiting period that requires people seeking abortion have to wait a whole day after their consultation to have the actual procedure. For young women traveling hundreds of miles, that means needing a place to stay and at least 2 days off of school before the procedure even happens. All of this combined means disclosing to parents or parents who may be abusive or unsupportive, plus needing a place to stay and at least two days off of school before the procedure can even happen.

Young women also usually are not financially independent; in general, most high school and college students rely on their parents for financial support.  I know that if I needed to have an abortion, I would not be able to cover all of the expenses myself–and coming from an anti-choice  family, this reality is very scary to me. According to the Guttmacher Institute 42% of women of all ages who obtain abortions live below the poverty line. Abortions are often not covered by health insurance and cost an average of between $350 and $550. In both Texas and Ohio, abortion is not covered by public funding, which means paying out of pocket if you cannot be covered under your parents insurance (because it is not safe to disclose) or if your parents don’t have insurance or if they (or you) have public insurance. These costs don’t even include the cost of mandatory ultrasounds, lodging, travel, and other incidentals, plus time off of work–which, for young women who have part-time jobs that pay minimum wage, could be impossible.

In Ohio, the new laws will mean that young women will have a hard time being able to seek out resources and support not only for abortion procedures, but for for contraceptive care as well. Planned Parenthood is one of the leading providers of reproductive health care and because it’s being defunded by the state, clinics will be forced to shut their doors, turning away young women who don’t have health insurance, supportive parents,  or access to comprehensive sex education at school. For women in Ohio that live in rural or poor areas, this could mean the end to affordable, accessible reproductive healthcare and knowledge.

I live and go to school in Athens County, the poorest county in the state of Ohio. We have only one clinic, Planned Parenthood, which provides reproductive health services. If they are forced to shut their doors, the young women here will have virtually no access to reproductive health services, since they are the least financially independent and disproportionately unlikely to have insurance. Those that are poor, in high school and ages 19-25 have some of the greatest risk for being uninsured  and these factors apply to many (if not most) young women in Athens. Without insurance, you have to rely on clinics like Planned Parenthood for services. I know that without Planned Parenthood here, I would have to go to my hometown, three and a half hours away, to receive reproductive health services. Those that live in Athens would also have to travel to receive treatment, which could mean missing work or school and having to spend hours in a car or on a bus route, just to be able to receive health services everyone should be entitled to.

Also, contraception has been shown  to be the most effective way to decrease the number of abortions that are performed. If IUDs and other extremely effective forms of contraception are outlawed, this would make preventing pregnancy for the young women of Ohio nearly impossible. They would either have to scramble to get money to pay for an abortion (which is often impossible) or become young mothers, which has many of it’s own costs that the state is too often unwilling to help with. Young women who are forced to become mothers before they’re financially ready exacerbates the cycle of poverty, virtually forever. Is this what we want for our sisters, daughters and peers, or for ourselves? This isn’t a debate about choice; it is about economics, education, childcare and our future. Everyone is affected.

This is why it is important that we all fight back, no matter where were from and remind our government that women can and should have the right to choose. We have to show them the affects of anti-choice legislation and refuse to bow down to the backlash.

If you want to speak out, contact Governor John Kasich of Ohio and Governor Rick Perry of Texas and tell them of your outrage. If we all make just one phone call or send one email, imagine the effect it could have. I’ve done this and urged my friends to as well- we have to fight back with our own pro-choice agenda, to expect any change to happen.