Guest opinion: This is my plea: Leave access to safe and legal abortion alone

Melinda Isley
Special to The News-Press

When I got my period at the age of 10 in 1980 and became a “woman”, my mom explained what Roe v. Wade meant.

It was very confusing to me why the government would try to tell me what I could and could not do with my body.

My mother explained what the ruling meant for women like her and now “women” like me.

“It means if you get raped and you get pregnant, you don’t have to have your rapist’s baby. It also means, if you choose not to have a baby, you can now freely choose to do so.”

Melinda Isley

I asked my mom why, if I wasn’t raped, would I not want a baby.

My mother explained that she married my father after her junior year of college. He was going off to the Korean War. She gave up her college degree and career for him. My mom was a gifted writer. She could have had a great career. Instead she went on to have four (three adopted) children and support her husband as a stay at home wife.

She preached to me: “Please don’t give up your career and self-worth for a man, ever. Especially not because of an unwanted pregnancy. This is why you need to know your options.”

Since that day, I have been a supporter of Roe v. Wade and abortion providers like Planned Parenthood.

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When I had a boyfriend and was ready to have sex I went to my gynecologist and asked him for birth control. He asked if I had discussed it with my mother. I said yes, which was true. I got the prescription.

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Even on birth control, I missed my period. I made an appointment with Planned Parenthood to get a test. It was mortifying to walk into that clinic.

As I was waiting for my appointment, I started bleeding. I was so relieved but extremely glad I had an option like Planned Parenthood.

I knew from the day I asked for birth control and decided to have sex that I was taking a risk. Birth control doesn’t always work. Things happen. But nothing was going to stop me from getting a college degree — probably more for my mom than for me — and going on to make my own money and have my own career so I would never have to rely on a man, or another person, for my next meal or livelihood.

Women need a choice and options and that’s what Roe v. Wade gives us.

However you feel about abortion, a woman’s health should drive important medical decisions — not political agendas. Every pregnancy and situation is different. We can’t know all of the factors that are involved in someone’s decision. 

Sen. Passidomo and Rep. Persons-Mulicka: I wish my mother was alive today so she could call your offices, stand with fellow pro-choice advocates and tell you personally in her own words why you are so wrong in your support of HB 5 and SB 146. This legislation is an attempt to advance your political agendas over sound science and medicine. This bill requires two physicians to sign off on a medical exception, provides no exceptions for when a person is raped or a victim of incest, even if they are a minor, and only very limited exceptions for when the pregnant person learns that there are serious fetal anomalies.

Leave access to safe and legal abortion alone. My mother fought for it and I promise to continue her fight for women now and for years to come.

Melinda Clarkson Isley is a native of Fort Myers and former member of the News-Press Editorial Board.