We have a special guestblogger this week at NVNV, Cecilia Marquez from Swarthmore College. Welcome Cecilia!
On Tuesday Executive Director Silvia Henriquez responded to the New York Time’s article For Privacy’s Sake, Taking Risks to End Pregnancy. In her response she critiques the author’s stance by clarifying some of the challenges faced by Latina women seeking abortions.
Self-induced abortion does raise questions about women’s experience, but glossing over the challenges of gaining access to abortion services does nothing to answer these questions. It neither reflects the reality of abortion delivery nor the reality of women’s lives.
Silvia outlines some of the structural barriers for Latina women accessing abortions. She discusses how expensive this procedure is as well as challenges the notion that availability of abortions is “widespread,” especially for women not living in urban areas. She also highlights the fact that many women in fact would “have preferred an earlier procedure” but were financially unable to.
I think it is incredibly important to highlight some of the ways that abortion has been made completely inaccessible to women, especially working-class women.
As we approach the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade it is important to think about new ways to make sure that a woman’s right to an abortion is both protected and accessible to all women.
Read the whole letter to the editor here.
Contributed by Cecilia Marquez
