Reproductive Rights: My Personal Story
A reflection from Kelsey Kauffman on a pregnancy that changed how she sees this issue.
I think most women view abortion and reproductive rights through the lens of their own reproductive experiences. I know I do.
Before I became pregnant the first time, I opposed abortion, especially after the first trimester. I was fortunate — I conceived easily and had a wonderful, healthy daughter.
After that, it was rough going, with so many miscarriages I lost count. Then I had a partial molar pregnancy.
A partial molar pregnancy is a rare, non-viable pregnancy caused by an abnormal number of chromosomes. The fetus cannot survive, and the condition can pose serious risks to the mother — including the possibility, especially as understood at the time, of a fast-moving cancer.
In 1983, diagnosis was far less certain than it is today. My doctors believed I likely had a molar pregnancy and strongly recommended an abortion. But they could not be completely sure. So I said no.
As the weeks passed, their concern became more urgent. They told me the pregnancy could not survive — and that I might not either. Eventually, I made the decision to proceed. The surgery was traumatic. I hemorrhaged severely, came close to an emergency hysterectomy, and spent time in intensive care.
A few years later, after I had been blessed with a second baby, I was at a county fair in upstate New York with the kids. A local pastor walked by wearing a t-shirt that read: "God gave woman a womb, not a tomb."
I remember standing there, stunned. I wanted to stop him and say: you have no idea what some of us have been through. You have no idea what it feels like to carry pregnancies that cannot survive, to lose them again and again, to make decisions no one ever wants to face.
I didn't say anything. But I never forgot it.
What stayed with me most from that time was not only the medical crisis, but the realization that these decisions were mine to make — first to wait, and then to act.
Before that experience, I thought I understood this issue. After it, I realized I didn't.
No two pregnancies are the same. No two women are the same. And no law can capture the complexity, uncertainty, and deeply personal nature of these decisions.
I cannot imagine having legislators — or even doctors — take that choice away from me. That experience gave me the humility to believe that every woman, every family, should be trusted to make these decisions for themselves.
Paid for by Kelsey Kauffman for House District 44