An exam room at the Red River Women’s Clinic in Moorhead, Minn. May 26, 2023. (The New York Times)
Claire Cameron is a novelist and essayist whose books include The Bear and The Last Neanderthal. This piece was assembled using more than 40 personal stories of women who have been affected by abortion laws in the United States after Roe v. Wade, the ruling issue Jan. 22, 1973, that protected the right to have an abortion, was overturned in 2022.
I’m not the only one
After she first received the diagnosis there was still a heartbeat they desperately wanted to start a family I almost fell to my knees
They would force me to carry putting me in danger I felt like a walking coffin there was nothing they could do
Spinal fluid was leaking missing a bladder and a kidney the heart was swollen my water had broken
A month passed without a decision but it was just silence we held on to every hope our hearts broke
Sent away with antibiotics had to wait, as her body discharged she could go home and look out for signs of infection
She started experiencing sharp pain the law has no exceptions like a prisoner trapped in her own body my dignity, my rights, had been taken away
Every heartbeat feels like your heart is going to explode she almost died when she was denied she’s gone to the ER four times the law made her give birth
Doctors sawed through scar tissue her eyes popped open on the operating table lost almost half of the blood in her body to be awake and present
The way we lost him was made worse he gasped for air a couple of times just trying to breathe a baby who lived just four hours
I held him before he took his last breath there was no mercy I’ve had my heart ripped out of my chest
My soul lives here as well as my body I have dreams I have feelings and emotions I am a person
I couldn’t stay silent something has to change I had to tell my story I am not alone.