EDITOR: In 1971 I was sexually assaulted by two men. The result was pregnancy. I was a kid, Catholic, and traumatized. Fearing my narcissistic mother’s extreme religiosity, I sought out an “underground clinic.”
My pregnancy confirmed, the kind young doctor suggested I ask my parents for help. Naively, I decided to try. My mother ranted. She called me a cheap prostitute. My father just stared. I was turned out into the dark literally and figuratively.
The clinic connected me to a secret network to obtain an abortion in California—the only state to have safe, legal abortion and birth control. I flew stand-by before dawn. I’d never flown and never been alone. I was met by a person I knew only by physical description, then hustled with others into the basement of a hospital in a bus with blacked out windows. I was lucky. I didn’t die.
Now, Prop. 115 will throw Colorado women back into that bus. The self-righteous GOP continues to seek control of women. They chip away at our privacy and our rights. This legislation will allow no compassion for any women. VOTE NO ON 115.
— Christine Weber, via letters@sentinelcolorado.com