With the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in a 5-4 decision, women no longer have a constitutional right to an abortion. Those on the pro-abortion side are concerned not only about privacy rights, but for the rights of women seeking to terminate pregnancies for health reasons. Straight Arrow News contributor Jordan Reid reveals very personal reasons for ending her pregnancy, and explains how important it is for women — and doctors — to have legal options available for them:

A few years ago, I had an ectopic pregnancy where the egg fertilizes in the fallopian tube as opposed to the uterus and I almost died. You can click the link to read the full story, and you should, if only to familiarize yourself with the symptoms. 

The reason I didn’t was that my friend Erin recognized the signs — in my case, cramping and bleeding that weren’t consistent with my cycle — and ordered me to take a pregnancy test. It was positive, which, again, didn’t make sense given where I was in my cycle and she more or less frogmarched me into a car and drove me to the hospital. I was told I was indeed pregnant, despite the fact that I was crystal clear about the fact that nothing about this seemed right to me. The doctor congratulated me, and sent me home. 

I returned to the hospital several hours later in so much pain I could barely stand or speak. I was told I was having a miscarriage, and then I was sent home again to “finish” miscarrying.

Except over the weekend, my stomach swelled to the size of a basketball from internal bleeding, and I ended up in emergency surgery, during which the doctors removed my fallopian tube and the embryo inside it. 

Ectopic pregnancies are not viable — there is no way for an embryo to grow when it is lodged in the fallopian tube – and they are very, very dangerous. What happened to me was an example of incompetent medical care. My survival shouldn’t have depended on the intervention of a friend who just happened to know the signs of an ectopic pregnancy and who would not stop advocating for me, but it did.

With the Supreme Court deciding to overturn Roe v. Wade, people around the country are understandably angry, fearful, and heartbroken. The myriad of effects that this decision will have on people experiencing unwanted pregnancy cannot be overstated, but what I want to communicate today is just how tangibly dangerous this failure of the judicial system will be in ways beyond what may seem tragically obvious.